After the forced break on Tuesday and yesterday due to a battery fire at supplier WAE, the Formula E tests in Valencia returned this Thursday afternoon. Mitch Evans set the fastest time ahead of António Félix da Costa.
The drivers and teams were able to continue their preparations, with some new features for 2024 not only among those who changed teams, but also in the regulations themselves – with the introduction of fast charging stops.
In the early stages, Edoardo Mortara set the benchmark time in the only Mahindra – the other car, driven by Nyck de Vries, suffered damage in Tuesday’s fire, keeping the Dutchman out of action.
As expected, lap times evolved throughout the session and the top four were in the 1m24s. It was already relatively close to the end that Evans (Jaguar) set the fastest lap in 1m24.791s. This would allow him to surpass Félix da Costa (Porsche) by 0.023s in the end. Interestingly, this was the order at the top before the interruption of work the day before yesterday. Mortara finished third, 0.112s behind, followed by Robin Frijns (Envision Racing/Jaguar) and Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) in the top five.
Also in action was reigning champion Jake Dennis (Andretti/Porsche), finishing 12th, 0.416s behind Evans. Just ahead of him was one of the two-time champions in the field, Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske). The only rookie of 2024, Jehan Daruvala (Maserati MSG Racing), made a good impression with the ninth fastest time.
In addition to the regular drivers, Porsche also gave some track time to rookie Gabriela Jilkova, who took over Félix da Costa’s cockpit for a while. However, after the delays caused by the fire and limited track time, the teams generally chose not to put the rookies on track.
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