Nissan’s Oliver Rowland went fastest in the first free practice session of the FIA Formula E season in São Paulo.
The Englishman went fastest, utilising the new four-wheel drive feature, with a 1:10.162, which is over three-and-a-half seconds faster that last season’s pole position time on the Anhembi Sambadrome circuit.
It was a one-two for the Japanese squad, with the returning Norman Nato second.
Jake Dennis was third for Andretti, with Mahindra Racing’s Edoardo Mortara fourth.
Rookie Taylor Barnard was fifth for NEOM McLaren, followed by Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans and Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns. Evans stopped out on late towards the end of the afternoon’s running with a suspected software problem.
Tag Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein were eighth and ninth respectively, with the second Jaguar of Nick Cassidy rounding-up the top 10.
Nico Müller was forced to pit just before the halfway stage, having clouted the wall at turn six, damaging his left-rear suspension, putting him at the bottom of the pack. Many drivers were forced to take evasive action at turn one, all pushing hard early-on.
