DS Virgin Racing teammates Sam Bird and Jose Maria Lopez shared the spoils during practice for the Buenos Aires Formula E race on Saturday morning.
Home favourite Lopez flew the flag high for Argentina in opening practice, finishing at the top of the timesheets after putting in an early 200kW lap of 1:09.431 for DS Virgin Racing. Jean-Eric Vergne finished second for Techeetah, while Mitch Evans also explored the full potential of his Jaguar I-Type in FP1, winding up third in the final standings as the only other driver to complete a 200kW qualifying simulation.
FP1 was interrupted by two red flag periods, both caused by Antonio Felix da Costa. The first saw the Andretti racer shunt into the wall after losing the backend of his car, while a stoppage later in the session brought his early running to a premature end.
FP2 saw the majority of the field stretch the legs of their cars, with Lucas di Grassi initially leading for ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport before crashing out late on. Felix Rosenqvist also enjoyed a stint in P1 for Mahindra, but it was Bird who snuck in at the end before yellow flags were shown for di Grassi and ended the session fastest.
A red flag period affected a number of teams' programmes after Loic Duval lost a tyre from his Dragon car. The Frenchman appeared to lose a wheel nut coming out of Turn 1, causing his tyre to break free. Although no-one was harmed, the session was halted so that the tyre could be recovered and Duval could get back to the pits.
Di Grassi's shunt only warranted local yellows, but they were enough to force the majority of the pack to ease off, making improvements hard to come by late on.
Qualifying for the Buenos Aires ePrix takes place at 12pm local time in Argentina (3pm GMT).
