Günther Leads BMW One-Two in Wet Second Practice for London E-Prix

Maximilian Günther was quickest in the second practice session for the London E-Prix as the forecasted rain hit the Exhibition Centre London (ExCeL) circuit on Saturday morning.

Günther led a BMW i Andretti Motorsport one-two ahead of British racer Jake Dennis in a difficult and challenging session for all twenty-four drivers.

The unique nature of the indoor/outdoor ExCeL track meant the first part of the lap was in the dry, the middle in the wet and the end again in the dry.  It made conditions difficult for the drivers, particularly in the early laps of the session.

Stoffel Vandoorne’s session was over early after he crashed after aquaplaning into the wall on the back straight.  The Belgian appeared to lose control on the wet track crossing some painted lines of a zebra crossing before hitting the wall hard and damaging his front-left corner of his Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team machine.

Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns was lucky to escape with just a brush against the wall as he spun heading down the ramp after exiting the indoor session, while moments later, Dragon/Penske Autosport’s Sérgio Sette Câmara also ended in the run-off zone at the same place.

Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi was also in the wars as he clipped the wall and broke his right-rear suspension.  He was able to crawl back to the pits, but his session was over a couple of minutes earlier than planned.

Günther left it late to hit the top, using his attack mode lap to pace the field with a time of 1:26.838, 0.375 seconds ahead of team-mate Dennis.  André Lotterer was third fastest for the Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, 0.629 seconds off the pace up front but 0.032 seconds ahead of Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn.

After surviving his spin, Sette Câmara ended up an impressive fifth, just ahead of Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries, while René Rast was seventh for Audi ahead of Sébastien Buemi of Nissan e.dams.  The top ten was completed by Buemi’s team-mate Oliver Rowland and ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara.

Practice one pacesetter Jean-Éric Vergne was only nineteenth, just behind his DS Techeetah team-mate António Félix da Costa, while championship leader Sam Bird was twelfth, just behind his Jaguar Racing team-mate Mitch Evans.

London E-Prix Free Practice 2 Result