A special training session was held today at the city circuit in Rome, prior to the main program of the race weekend, in which only drivers who had not driven in Formula E before took part. Aston Martin F1 reserve driver Felipe Drugovic achieved the best result in the electric series in partnership with the Maserati works team. The Brazilian completed his fastest lap in 1 minute. 43,736 seconds.
By the way, it was Drugovich who became the author of the best lap at the April tests in Berlin. And today he beat Sheldon van der Linde, who drove the Jaguar electric racing car and moved up to second in protocol, by more than three-tenths. The third time on his home circuit was driven by Italian Luca Giotto in a Nissan.
Most of the participants in the training have already driven the new generation of Formula E (GEN3) cars in the tests in Berlin, but there were also genuine newcomers, including Frenchman Yann Erlacher, the owner of several FIA WTCR touring car championship titles, who drove DS Penske’s car today.
Although this was his first taste of Formula E engineering, he achieved a respectable 5th result.
The training took place in high temperatures – the thermometer in Rome showed 33 degrees today.
The session was briefly interrupted by yellow flags as Ye Yfei’s electric Porsche came to a stop in the relegation zone of Turn 7. This is actually the car of António Felix da Costa, who knows the Chinese racer well, as during the 24 Hours of Le Mans they played in the same crew and drove the Porsche 963 hypercar.
Daniil Kvyat, who was driving the NIO 333, made a similar mistake at the end of the session: he also locked the wheels under braking and continued straight ahead.
Technical problems disrupted the normal work of Jehan Daruvala and Adrien Tambe, they managed to drive the cars of the ABT Cupra team for only one lap at the start of the session.
However, the results of the training do not fully reflect the speed capabilities of the pilots, as in many teams they were tasked not to complete the lap as fast as possible, but to work on race pace and help find the optimal mode of energy consumption .
| Pilot | Team | Time | Difference | Circles |
| 1. F.Drugovich | Maserati MSG Racing | 1:43,736 | – | 12 |
| 2. Z. van der Linde | Jaguar TCS Racing | 1:44.048 | +0.312 | 14 |
| 3. L Giotto | Nissan Formula E team | 1:44.153 | +0.417 | 14 |
| 4.C Eastwood | NEOM McLaren Formula E Team | 1:44.191 | +0.455 | 15 |
| 5. Yes, Erlasher | DS PENSKE | 1:44,347 | +0.611 | 14 |
| 6.Z Maloney | Avalanche Andretti Formula E | 1:45.028 | +1,292 | 12 |
| 7. D. Kvyat | NIO 333 Racing FE team | 1:45,338 | +1,602 | 16 |
| 8. Yifei Ye | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team | 1:45,617 | +1,881 | eleven |
| 9. D. Aitken | Imagine racing | 1:45,766 | +2,030 | 10 |
| 10. D. Daruvala | MAHINDRA RACING | Without time | – | 01 |
| 11. A.Tambe | ABT CUPRA FORMULA E TEAM | Without time | – | 01 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
