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Portland E-Prix: Da Costa fastest in FP2 as Fenestraz causes red flag

Antonio Felix da Costa topped the second Formula E practice session ahead of the Portland E-Prix double-header this weekend, which was disrupted by a red flag after Sacha Fenestraz crashed.

Da Costa posted a 1m08.787s that left him quickest, with the Porsche driver entering the American event having won two races from the last three, although the German manufacturer’s appeal into his Misano disqualification was rejected earlier this week.

A red flag was called inside the first nine minutes after Fenestraz lost control through the fast left-right sequence of Turns 10/11, the Nissan driver sent into a spin across the grass before hitting the barrier on the outside of the circuit.

Despite suspension damage, Fenestraz was able to recover back to the pits with the session resuming after a six-minute stoppage in order to clean up debris, with the Nissan team in a race against time to repair the damage ahead of qualifying later today.

Fenestraz was not the only driver to take to the grass through the quick sequence of corners at the end of the back straight, with both Jaguars of Mitch Evans and championship leader Nick Cassidy each having an excursion but not finding the barrier either time.

Envision’s Robin Frijns occupied top spot when running resumed having set a 1m09.436s but this was quickly usurped by several drivers, with McLaren’s Sam Bird moving top on a 1m09.196s as the 30-minute session moved into its second phase.

Da Costa became the first driver to dip below the 1m09s barrier, posting a 1m08.877s before the Portuguese driver lowered the benchmark further to a 1m08.787s shortly after.

Norman Nato, Andretti Global, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 (Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images)

This stood as the best time for the rest of the session and 0.126s clear of Norman Nato with Cassidy third.

Reigning champion Jake Dennis occupied fourth ahead of Andretti’s home race, with Caio Collet finishing an impressive fifth ahead of his Formula E race debut as the Brazilian replaces Oliver Rowland at Nissan, the Briton suffering from an illness.

The DS Penske’s of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne finished 19th and 21st respectively after the team was fined €5000 the previous day for a guest being in a restricted area without the correct pass.

Nato had topped Friday afternoon’s FP1 session with a 1m09.079s, which left him 0.174s clear of Evans with Cassidy a further 0.033s in arrears.

But the Andretti driver has been handed a 10-place grid penalty ahead of Saturday’s race having incurred his third reprimand for driving infringements in the same season. This was after the Frenchman exceeded the full course yellow speed limit during the session.

Formula E Portland - Practice results

FP2

   
1
 - 
3
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h
1 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13 18

1'08.787

  166.950
2 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17 18

+0.126

1'08.913

0.126 166.644
3 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37 19

+0.229

1'09.016

0.103 166.396
4 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1 18

+0.271

1'09.058

0.042 166.294
5 Brazil C. Collet Nissan e.Dams 22 19

+0.321

1'09.108

0.050 166.174
6 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33 17

+0.322

1'09.109

0.001 166.172
7 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16 18

+0.336

1'09.123

0.014 166.138
8 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4 18

+0.342

1'09.129

0.006 166.124
9 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94 18

+0.391

1'09.178

0.049 166.006
10 United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8 17

+0.409

1'09.196

0.018 165.963
11 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51 18

+0.422

1'09.209

0.013 165.932
12 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9 19

+0.428

1'09.215

0.006 165.917
13 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3 18

+0.491

1'09.278

0.063 165.766
14 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48 18

+0.527

1'09.314

0.036 165.680
15 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11 19

+0.557

1'09.344

0.030 165.609
16 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5 17

+0.566

1'09.353

0.009 165.587
17 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21 17

+0.598

1'09.385

0.032 165.511
18 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7 20

+0.677

1'09.464

0.079 165.323
19 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2 18

+0.910

1'09.697

0.233 164.770
20 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18 19

+0.953

1'09.740

0.043 164.668
21 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25 18

+1.117

1'09.904

0.164 164.282
22 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.Dams 23 5

+10.968

1'19.755

9.851 143.990

FP1

   
1
 - 
3
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h
1 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17 11

1'09.079

  166.244
2 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9 18

+0.174

1'09.253

0.174 165.826
3 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37 18

+0.207

1'09.286

0.033 165.747
4 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13 19

+0.238

1'09.317

0.031 165.673
5 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21 19

+0.340

1'09.419

0.102 165.430
6 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11 19

+0.378

1'09.457

0.038 165.339
7 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94 17

+0.446

1'09.525

0.068 165.177
8 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3 18

+0.533

1'09.612

0.087 164.971
9 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7 19

+0.571

1'09.650

0.038 164.881
10 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48 19

+0.580

1'09.659

0.009 164.860
11 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18 19

+0.724

1'09.803

0.144 164.520
12 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1 18

+0.737

1'09.816

0.013 164.489
13 United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8 20

+0.750

1'09.829

0.013 164.458
14 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51 19

+0.761

1'09.840

0.011 164.432
15 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25 18

+0.769

1'09.848

0.008 164.414
16 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2 17

+0.824

1'09.903

0.055 164.284
17 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5 20

+0.837

1'09.916

0.013 164.254
18 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33 19

+0.837

1'09.916

0.000 164.254
19 Brazil C. Collet Nissan e.Dams 22 19

+0.936

1'10.015

0.099 164.021
20 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4 20

+0.992

1'10.071

0.056 163.890
21 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.Dams 23 18

+1.243

1'10.322

0.251 163.305
22 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16 16

+3.480

1'12.559

2.237 158.271
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