A last-minute flurry of laps in the final few minutes of practice saw DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa narrowly top the timing sheets around the Big Apple.
Da Costa put in a 1:08.472 lap to lead the way at Round 11 in New York, only 0.049s clear of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans. In fact, the top four were separated by less than a tenth of a second, with yesterday’s pole-sitter Nick Cassidy and Envision Virgin teammate Robin Frijns clocking in the third and fourth fastest laps respectively.
Drivers were once more greeted by dusty conditions around the Brooklyn Street Circuit, as Mahindra’s Alexander Sims set the initial benchmark with a 1:09.507 as the first 250kW lap.
Timings began to slowly drop throughout the session with yesterday’s second-place finisher Jean-Eric Vergne and Evans both going quickest using Attack Mode.
However, it was the final five minutes of the session that saw the greatest flurry of action as drivers set out to gain more insight ahead of Qualifying this afternoon. The TAG Heuer Porsche duo of Andre Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein both put themselves up into P1, before Da Costa’s flying lap put him ahead of the rest of the field by the tightest of margins.
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Rene Rast was the fifth quickest on track, ahead of ROKiT Venturi’s Norman Nato and Wehrlein. Mahindra’s Alex Lynn was eighth and will want to recapture his quick pace from Qualifying yesterday after failing to score.
Lucas di Grassi was just over two-tenths down in ninth, as championship leader Edoardo Mortara rounded out the top 10 for ROKiT Venturi. Vergne closed the session in 12th with Round 10 race winner Maximillian Guenther over a tenth behind in 13th.
Meanwhile, Mercedes EQ continue to struggle in New York. Stoffel Vandoorne was the leading driver in 15th and Nyck de Vries finished down in 20th, 0.708s slower than Da Costa’s fastest lap.
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