During the day break between two sessions of Formula E testing in Valencia, a fire broke out in the circuit’s pit lane, which was quickly extinguished, but everyone had to be evacuated from the main building and garages, as we have already discussed.
In this situation, the FIA has decided that for safety reasons the work on the circuit will not continue on Tuesday, including to eliminate all consequences of the incident.
The best time of the day will therefore remain with Mitch Evans: shortly after the end of the first session, the Jaguar factory team driver completed a lap around the Spanish circuit in 1 minute. 24.474 seconds.
Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche) lost 0.143 seconds, after which the top seven drivers were: Sebastien Buemi (Envision), Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra), Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche), Max Günther (Maserati) and Formula E newcomer Taylor Barnard, pilot Sam Bird’s electric McLaren.
They all completed laps faster than last year’s best result, as evidenced by Gunter’s Valencia testing – the Maserati driver then topped the protocol and completed a lap of 3.376 meters in 1 minute. 25.127 seconds.
The striking difference to Evans’ result today indicates that the teams have been actively refining the new generation of GEN3 cars throughout the year, and speeds have increased.
It is worth noting that Nyck de Vries, who won the title in the electric series in 2021, returned to the wheel of a Formula E car – he is working with the Mahindra team on tests.
Russian driver Robert Shvartsman was working with DS Penske today, but flew off the track about an hour before the end of the session, after which the races were suspended with red flags and the car had to be evacuated from the side of the road using a tap.
The test is the first time that Formula E teams have tested an innovation on the track, such as fast battery charging systems, which will be used in the electric series from 2024.
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.
