Oliver Rowland ended fastest in the opening practice session of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season on Thursday as the eleven teams prepared for the Diriyah E-Prix double header in Saudi Arabia.
Rowland, who has made the switch from Nissan e.dams to Mahindra Racing for the 2021/22 season, set a best time of 1:10.559 at the very end of the session to outpace 2019/20 champion António Félix da Costa of DS Techeetah by 0.158 seconds.
Reigning champion Nyck de Vries had a far from impressive start to his championship defence, with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver ending in the wall within the first five minutes, with his lack of representative lap time seeing him end up twenty-second and last on the timesheets.
Jake Dennis, one of the surprise packages of the 2020/21 season, was third fastest in the newly renamed Avalanche Andretti Formula E Team following the departure of BMW as a manufacturer entry at the end of last year, while Jean-Éric Vergne was on course to top the session as he set two purple sectors only for the second Techeetah driver to suffer a slide in the final sector to leave him only fourth.
Mitch Evans placed fifth for Jaguar TCS Racing, just over half a second down on Rowland’s best time, while last years championship runner up Edoardo Mortara was sixth for ROKiT Venturi Racing, just ahead of the leading Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team driver Pascal Wehrlein.
Wehrlein is under investigation, however, with the German being investigated for a potential breach of speeding under a full-course yellow, caused by de Vries’ early crash.
Sébastien Buemi was eighth for Nissan e.dams, while Lucas di Grassi ended ninth in his first official session with his new Venturi team, just ahead of Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy.
Of the three rookies on show this year, Dan Ticktum was the best placed of them in thirteenth for the NIO 333 FE Team, with Antonio Giovinazzi twentieth for Dragon/Penske Autosport and Oliver Askew twenty-first for Andretti.
Diriyah E-Prix Practice Times
| POS. | NO. | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | 30 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Mahindra Racing | 1:10.559 |
| 2 | 13 | António Félix da Costa | POR | DS Techeetah | 1:10.717 |
| 3 | 27 | Jake Dennis | GBR | Avalanche Andretti FE Team | 1:10.739 |
| 4 | 25 | Jean-Éric Vergne | FRA | DS Techeetah | 1:10.744 |
| 5 | 9 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Jaguar TCS Racing | 1:11.064 |
| 6 | 48 | Edoardo Mortara | CHE | ROKIT Venturi Racing | 1:11.080 |
| 7 | 99 | Pascal Wehrlein | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team | 1:11.139 |
| 8 | 23 | Sébastien Buemi | CHE | Nissan e.DAMS | 1:11.199 |
| 9 | 11 | Lucas di Grassi | BRZ | ROKiT Venturi Racing | 1:11.233 |
| 10 | 37 | Nick Cassidy | NZL | Envision Racing | 1:11.329 |
| 11 | 36 | André Lotterer | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team | 1:11.400 |
| 12 | 29 | Alexander Sims | GBR | Mahindra Racing | 1:11.461 |
| 13 | 33 | Dan Ticktum | GBR | NIO 333 FE Team | 1:11.478 |
| 14 | 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team | 1:11.610 |
| 15 | 4 | Robin Frijns | NED | Envision Racing | 1:11.640 |
| 16 | 10 | Sam Bird | GBR | Jaguar TCS Racing | 1:11.751 |
| 17 | 28 | Maximilian Günther | GER | Nissan e.DAMS | 1:11.921 |
| 18 | 7 | Sérgio Sette Câmara | BRZ | Dragon/Penske Autosport | 1:11.955 |
| 19 | 8 | Oliver Turvey | GBR | NIO 333 FE Team | 1:12.361 |
| 20 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Dragon/Penske Autosport | 1:12.442 |
| 21 | 28 | Oliver Askew | USA | Avalanche Andretti FE Team | 1:12.668 |
| 22 | 17 | Nyck de Vries | NED | Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team | 1:40.153 |