Renault e.Dams driver Sebastien Buemi dominated first and second practice for the Mexico ePrix, as Formula E debuted at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The Swiss racer put in a 1:03.995 on full qualifying power of 200kW late in the first session, finishing fastest. It was a busy 45-minutes of running as drivers got to grips with the challenging track, which features a mix of long straights, sweeping corners and tight chicanes.
He ended practice one four tenths clear of Dragon Racing’s Loic Duval, with Oliver Turvey and Nicolas Prost next up for NEXTEV TCR and Renault e.Dams respectively. However, both were over one second behind Buemi.
Daniel Abt, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Stephane Sarrazin and Nick Heidfeld were next up. Lucas di Grassi, Mike Conway and reigning Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr were ninth, 10th and 11th.
Antonio Felix da Costa, Jean-Eric Vergne, Bruno Senna, Salvador Duran, Sam Bird, Robin Frijns and his Andretti team-mate Simona de Silvestro – who stopped on track with a battery issue – concluded the runners in FP1.
Buemi retained the top spot on the timesheets in second practice, improving his previous best lap with a 1:03.341 with a qualifying run in the closing stages of the 30-minute session. He finished three tenths clear of Abt and di Grassi in the ABT cars.
Prost, Conway, Turvey, d’Ambrosio and Sarrazin were next up, all within one second of Buemi’s best time. Vergne and Piquet Jr completed the top 10. Senna and Heidfeld slotted into 11th and 12th for Mahindra.
Frijns moved up to 13th, with Duval and Bird – who suffered a spin and clipped the barrier at the first chicane – were next on the leaderboard, with de Silvestro, da Costa and Duran, who suffered an issue with his car and brought out the red flag, rounding out the order.
