Guenther tops busy Berlin FP2

Maximilian Guenther goes quickest in a busy second free practice session ahead of the Berlin E-Prix. 

The Maserati MSG driver topped the times late in the session and improved on his final lap to set a time of 1m05.301s. The lap was just over half a second quicker than that completed by Stoffel Vandoorne in FP1. 

A red flag haulted running in the first part of the session. Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland had a lock up at the first corner and nudged into the barriers. He was unable to get his car restarted, with the team telling him that a “Williams reset” was needed. Rowland was able to get out in the final five minutes of the session, but was off the pace of his team-mate. 

By this point, few had set a flying lap. Dan Ticktum’s 1m06.829s lap was enough to put him P1. 

The session restarted with 18 minutes on the clock, though it was later extended by seven minutes. 

Almost as soon as the track went green, times began to tumble. Sebastien Buemi and Jake Dennis swapped fastest laps before Jean-Eric Vergne topped the order with a 1m05.600s. 

Vergne remained there for a few moments before Guenther narrowly beat him. 

There was little improvement in the final 10 minutes of the session. Lucas Di Grassi briefly jumped up into the top five before being shuffled back and Antonio Felix Da Costa jumped from 11th to P3. An improvement for Nick Cassidy on his final lap of the session knocked the Porsche driver back to fourth. 

Guenther ended the sesison 0.255s ahead of Cassidy with Vergne a further 0.044s back. Da Costa finished fourth, ahead of Vandoorne and Buemi. Di Grassi managed to go seventh, with Sam Bird and Andre Lotterer close behind. 

Mitch Evans completed the top 10, but didn’t manage a trouble free session. The Jaguar driver pulled to the side of the track just after the chequered flag with an apparent issue, which brought out local yellows. 

Also without a trouble free session was Robin Frijns who span late on, but didn’t cause any issues. 

Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein was 15th quickest, having set the exact same time as title rival Jake Dennis, who finished ahead in P14.