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Lotterer quickest in first day of Season 7 testing

Porsche’s Andre Lotterer topped the times in the first day of pre-season testing ahead of Formula E’s Season 7.

Lotterer was consistently quick throughout the session, though the DS Techeetah duo of Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix Da Costa, as well as Edoardo Mortara were also quick.

Damp running in the morning session was disrupted by multiple red flag periods. Sergio Sette Camara, running with Dragon for his first full season in the championship, was the first driver to bring a stop to the session when he fell into the gravel early on.

However, even more experienced drivers such as Sebastien Buemi and Mitch Evans also ran into problems on track, with Buemi bringing out the red flag with 45 minutes left on the clock.

Antonio Felix Da Costa was top after the first hour of running, though dropped back down the order as others found improvements.

Championship newcomer Nick Cassidy briefly topped the order before being dethroned by Da Costa and then Mortara.

Mortara’s 1,18.148s around the Valencia circuit was enough to keep him top of the order going into the lunch break.

Da Costa, 0.031s back, took second ahead of NIO’s Oliver Turvey, who put in a strong performance after a difficult few years for the NIO team.

Alex Sims, Sette Camara, Cassidy and Rene Rast made it seven different teams in the top seven, before Cassidy’s Virgin team-mate Robin Frijns came in at P8.

Jake Dennis and Sam Bird completed the top 10.

After lunch, it was the Mercedes duo of Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries setting the pace early on.

It wasn’t long before those who had run at the sharp end of the field were back at the top of the order though, as Cassidy, Da Costa, and Jean-Eric Vergne came through.

The drier afternoon session didn’t have as many stoppages, though yellow flags were briefly shown on two occasions as drivers ran into difficulties.

However, the session came to a close 14 minutes early, when Norman Nato came to a stop on track. The session did not get back underway, leaving Lotterer top of the order with a 1m12.519s lap.

Vergne and Da Coasta made it a DS Techeetah 2-3, just ahead of Cassidy and Sims.

Despite the off, Nato finished seventh overall, just behind Rast and ahead of Nico Muller.

Dennis, and Frijns rounded out the top 10.

A dummy race is expected to take place during the second day of practice tomorrow.

Bethonie Waring

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