Andre Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein made it a Porsche 1-2 at the top of the timing sheets, setting the pace ahead of the second race of the Valencia E-Prix weekend.
The 45-minute session got underway in cold and slippery conditions at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Heavy rain overnight, combined with temperatures of only 12 – 13°C, made the session unrepresentative as the track is expected to dry ahead of qualifying.
Envision Virgin’s Nick Cassidy laid down the initial benchmark with a 1m 39.890s, before the Nissan e.dams of Oliver Rowland went quickest with a 1m 38.532s
Conditions proved to be tricky, with reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa going wide at Turn 4 and making a trip through the gravel.
Unfortunately, Edoardo Mortara was not so lucky, as the ROKiT Venturi driver found himself beached in the gravel at Turn 12. This brought out the red-flag with 35 minutes remaining, as the Swiss driver was lifted back on to circuit and was able re-join the session.
BMW i Andretti’s Jake Dennis then popped himself up to the top of the timing sheets with 10 mins left on the clock.
The final couple of minutes saw a flurry of 250kW laps, enabling Porsche’s Andre Lotterer to go quickest with a 1m 35.269. This became a 1-2 for the German team, with Pascal Wehrlein trailing his team-mate by 0.032s.
Jaguar’s Sam Bird finished the session third, meanwhile Cassidy was forced to settle for fourth after leading the session earlier on.
It was promising session for Dragon/Penske’s Sergio Sette Camara in fifth, with his fastest lap set using only attack mode, not the full 250kW used by those around him.
However, an issue with his brakes forced the Brazilian driver to pull into the run-off area on the exit of Turn 8 at the end of the session.
Norman Nato emerged as the fastest ROKiT Venturi in sixth, whilst Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi secured the seventh quickest time.
Stoffel Vandoorne found himself edging out his team-mate and yesterday’s race winner, Nyck de Vries, in eighth, whilst Dennis found himself splitting the Mercedes EQ duo in ninth.
Da Costa was only able to managed 22nd in the DS Techeetah, 1.804s off the pace of the leading Porsche drivers.
