Laurence ThornBMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Antonio Felix da Costa topped the times in the second Free Practice session in Mexico City, with a time just under two tenths of a second quicker than Venturi’s Felipe Massa.
The 58.963s lap set by da Costa was the only lap of the day so far to dip under the 59 second mark, as he topped a session in which many drivers took to the run-off as they tested the limits of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.
Massa secured his best-ever Formula E session placing with second place, ahead of Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi, Jerome d’Ambrosio of Mahindra Racing, and Envision Virgin Racing’s championship leader Sam Bird – one of the drivers to sample the run-off as he tried to find the best lines around the Mexico City circuit.
Rounding out the top ten were Jose Maria Lopez (Dragon), Buemi’s team-mate Oliver Rowland, Jaguar Racing’s Nelson Piquet Jr, and the Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler duo of Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt.
Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne complained over the team radio of an “undriveable” DS Techeetah car, as he finished 12th in the session behind Pascal Wehrlein.
Oliver Turvey damaged the suspension on his NIO car after contact with a wall at the final chicane, and ended the session in 17th place.
Qualifying takes place at 11:45am local time.
Bethonie Waring
