On Formula E’s return after 165 days away, it was Jake Hughes who topped the opening practice session of Season 10, at the Mexico City E-Prix. However, it was a crash for Hughes which saw the session red-flagged and ultimately not restarted with just over five minutes remaining.
The British driver set the quickest time in the session with just over seven minutes remaining, before immedietly crashing at Turn 1. Hughes entered the corner with too much speed and tried to abort the fast right-hander at the last second but, unfortunately, found the wall.
He nevertheless topped the session ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, ABT CUPRA’s Nico Müller, Robin Frijns and reigning World Champion Jake Dennis. Completing the top-10 in the severely disrupted session were António Félix da Costa in sixth, Mitch Evans in seventh, Sacha Fenestraz in eighth, with Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato in ninth and 10th.
How the session unfolded
The green light at the end of the pit-lane not only marked the start of Season 10 and the beginning of FP1, but the first session in 165 days (excluding pre-season testing), as mentioned. It was reigning Constructors’ Champions Envision Racing who led the field out onto the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit, which was, unsurprisingly, very green and incredibly dusty.
One feature of the opening practice session of the season is that the fast-charging boosters weren’t in operation; however, Attack Charge pit-stops were still simulated. The boosters were in use in the shakedown session ahead of first practice and will be used in Free Practice 2 on Saturday.
The circuit was significantly more dusty than it was in the opening practice session last year, with ERT’s Sérgio Sette Câmara and Frijns having been caught out by the dust in the opening minutes. Both drivers managed to control their slides, unlike Maximilian Günther.
Günther found himself off-line in the high-speed final corner, with the Maserati MSG Racing driver’s left-rear tyre having clipped the wall. As well as the impact having instantly deflated the tyre, it also broke his rear suspension. He came to a halt on the start/finish straight, causing the first red flag of 2024 just seven minutes into the session.
Thankfully, for the paddock, FP1 was extended by 10 minutes to make up for the time which was lost during the red flag for Günther’s car to be recovered. When the session did resume, it was Evans who was the early pacesetter. He remained at the top as the first session of 2024 hit its halfway mark, ahead of Fenestraz and Dennis.
To Maserati’s credit, and Günther’s delight, the Monaco-based team managed to repair his car and get him back out on the circuit with 12 minutes remaining. One-lap pace was the Porsche powertrain’s big issue in Season 9, yet it appears it’s been worked on during the off-season.
Factory Porsche driver Wehrlein topped the session with just under 10 minutes remaining, ahead of Dennis and Evans. Wehrlein’s time at the top was short-lived, though, as Hughes went fastest. However, just seconds after setting the fastest time, he went off at high-speed. It was immedietly noted by the race director that the session wouldn’t be resumed.
Hughes’ session-topping time was a 1m 14.364s, just under four-tenths faster than Wehrlein. Interestingly, the NEOM McLaren driver’s lap was just over a second slower than Jean-Éric Vergne’s leading time in FP1 12 months ago. Elsewhere, rookie Jehan Daruvala was last, and 2.2s off the pace.
Free Practice 2 gets underway on Saturday, at 13:25 GMT.
