Both Envision Virgin cars look to be in strong form, with rookie Nick Cassidy snatching the third quickest time.
Robin Frijns looked to make amends by clocking in a 1:07.294, after being forced to miss yesterday’s qualifying session due to his crash in second practice.
Cassidy will be pleased with his pace in the session and will hope to reach his first Super Pole shootout, after having his lap time deleted yesterday for being set during a yellow flag.
Round 1 race winner Nyck de Vries once more showed the pace he has in Diriyah. The Dutch driver was only 0.146 seconds behind Frijns.
Strategies around the new tyre rules came into play, unusually several cars chose to wait in their garages at the start of the session.
Each driver cannot use more than four new rear and four new front tyres for each event, and with the season opener being a double-header, conserving tyre performance will be crucial.
Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa initially topped the session with a 1:07.604, just over a tenth ahead of Nissan e.dams Oliver Rowland.
Then in scenes similar to yesterday, the session was red flagged after Lotterer kissed the wall going around Turn 11, the same place Frijns went into the wall in FP2.
Under the safety car, a few cars required adjustments, with Rowland’s torsion bar being change. Additionally, Jaguar’s Mitch Evans is under investigation for improper use of attack mode as he failed to go through the correct loop.
Post-red flag, de Vries then clocked in the fastest time with a 1:08.073, before Rowland clocked the first sub-1:08 lap of the day, before de Vries overtook him once more.
However, it was Frijns in the Envision who eventually topped the timing sheets ahead of de Vries and Cassidy.
The end of the session was blighted by traffic on the grid as several drivers looked to clock in their fastest lap before the chequered flag. A yellow flag was even caused by one of the Jaguars trying to get out of the way by going on to the runoff area.
Rowland closed the session in fourth, with da Costa having a more promising session than in Round 1 in sixth.
Edoardo Mortara, who took second in the season opener, was in sixth. However, the ROKiT Venturi was involved in a bizarre incident after the chequered flag.
Whilst undertaking a practice start, he appeared to be unable to stop and went straight into the barriers at the start of Turn 1. Thankfully, his team have reported that he is conscious and is on his way to hospital for precautionary assessments.
The second Mercedes EQ of Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh, just over two-tenths behind Frijns.
Sebastien Buemi was eighth with Sam Bird, who will be hoping for more luck today after being involved in a collision with Mahindra’s Alex Lynn in the race last night.
Lynn has been awarded a five-place grid drop for the incident and finished today’s session in 19th.
Di Grassi was 10th ahead of the Brits of Oliver Turvey in 11th and rookie Jake Dennis 12th.
The second Audi of Rast was 13th, Jean-Eric Vergne was 14th, with Tom Blomqvist ahead of Norman Nato in 15th.
It was a difficult session for BMW I Andretti’s Maximillian Guenther and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein who were 17th and 18th on the timing sheets.
Dragon/Penske Autosport’s Nico Muller was 20th, ahead of yesterday’s podium finisher Mitch Evans and the second Mahindra of Alexander Sims.
Sergio Sette Camara was the last of the representative times in 23rd and it will be a race against time for the mechanics down at Porsche, who will need to repair Lotterer’s car ahead of qualifying.
