Times didn’t fall but rain did to conclude the latest FIA Formula E Championship two-day test at Donington Park, the final preseason test before the 2015-’16 championship opens in Beijing on October 17.
Nicolas Prost of Renault e.dams topped the timesheets at a 1:30.513, which was a little more than half a second off Lucas di Grassi’s 1:29.920 set last week.
Sebastien Buemi made it a 1-2 for Renault e.dams with a best time of 1:30.801, with Jerome d’Ambrosio (Dragon Racing) and Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing) also in the 1:30 segment. Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin completed the top five.
Notable beyond the top runners were the respective FIA Formula E testing debuts for ex-GP2 stars Robin Frijns and Stefano Coletti, the latter of whom is in the midst of a mid-week trip to Europe in-between the Pocono and Sonoma IndyCar races.
Frijns tested with Amlin Andretti Formula E, completing 21 laps, while Coletti banked 20 laps for Team Aguri.
Frijns and Simona de Silvestro’s 11 laps for Andretti – a combined 32 – were particular notable in what’s been a troubled preseason testing period.
Relief may come by way of a last-minute revert to its 2014-’15 powertrain, utilized in season one, to help increase reliability.
It sees the team shift from the ATEC-01, which uses a revised four-speed Hewland gearbox, back to the season one Spark SRT_01E, which has a McLaren electronics system and five-speed Hewland gearbox.
De Silvestro’s testing stint this summer has been her latest struggle in a career faced with obstacles, but where her resiliency often shines through.