Rowland fastest in damp conditions in Hong Kong

Oliver Rowland set the pace in a damp free practice one for Nissan e.dams ahead of the Hong Kong e-Prix.

An early rain shower made the circuit treacherous prior to the start of the session but, despite this and the 91% humidity, the vast majority of the field made their way onto the circuit as the green flag was waved.

DS Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer was second fastest ahead of teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, while Sebastien Buemi was fourth fastest in the second of the Nissan e.dams machines.

Daniel Abt was fifth fastest for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler ahead of Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns and the Dragon of Jose Maria Lopez in seventh.

Garry Paffett was eighth fastest for HWA Racelab, despite stopping on track late on with a mechanical issue which the team are investigating ahead of the second free practice session.

Alexander Sims was ninth fastest for BMW i Andretti Motorsport ahead of the Venturi of Edo Mortara and Stoffel Vandoorne in the second HWA entry.

Sam Bird was twelfth fastest for Virgin despite brushing the wall on the way into turn two near the end of the session, ahead of Nio’s Tom Dillmann and the Venturi of Felipe Massa.

Mitch Evans was fifthteenth fastest for Jaguar ahead of his teammate Nelson Piquet, who at one point reversed his way out of the escape road at Turn 1, and Audi’s Lucas di Grassi.

Felipe Nasr was eighteeth fastest in the second of the Dragon entries ahead of BMW’s Antonio Felix da Costa and Mahindra duo Pascal Wehrlein and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

Oliver Turvey rounded out the field in the second of the NIO entries.

Free Practice 2 takes place at 10:30am local time.