Summary FP2 ePrix Sao Paulo | Da Costa fastest, Frijns in the rear
General
- GPblog.com
Antonio Felix da Costa set the fastest time in the second free practice session for the ePrix of Sao Paulo. In a session without any notable incidents, the Portuguese managed to keep the rest of the field behind him.
It is the first time an ePrix has been held on the Sao Paulo street circuit, and it was clear to see that the drivers still had some trouble with the circuit, which is new to them. Several drivers overshot in the first corner, and it was not uncommon for someone to narrowly miss the tyre wall. Nevertheless, the session went off without any major problems.
The fastest time was for Portuguese Antonio Felix da Costa, who races for Porsche. Da Costa managed to win the previous race and will hope to continue that line this weekend. He does face a challenge from his teammate and championship leader Pascal Wehrlein, who was less than four-tenths behind Da Costa. Reigning world champion Stoffel Vandoorne set the eighth-fastest time, continuing his improvement over the course of the season. Dutchman Robin Frijns could not get beyond a 19th time in his first race weekend since the start of the season. Frijns dropped out on the first lap of the first race due to a crash, suffering a wrist injury that has so far condemned him to the reserve bench.
Race organisers can't get the lights going
At the end of the session came a somewhat special moment. The drivers were getting ready for a trial start when race control relayed over the onboard radios that the starting lights were not working. So it was up to the drivers themselves to manage the test start. However, immediately after the first drivers drove off for their test start, the lights came back on. The test start did not go smoothly for everyone: several drivers drove off surrounded by a big cloud of smoke because of the wheelspin they had at the start.
