Frijns tops opening day of Formula E pre-season test

A new-look Formula E field returned to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo for the first of three days of action in Valencia in the only combined on-track running prior to the new season kicking off with a Saudi Arabia double-header in January. 

The opening day was split into a three-hour morning session and a shorter afternoon session, in which Frijns jumped to the top of the timesheets with an outright benchmark time of a 1m26.968s. 

The Dutchman was the only driver to dip into the 1m26s bracket all day. 

Fijns ended up nearly two-tenths clear of Jean-Eric Vergne, who outpaced DS Techeetah teammate Antonio Felix da Costa by just 0.002s to take second spot in the afternoon and overall. 

Nick Cassidy was fourth-quickest for Envision Racing, while morning pacesetter Sam Bird put his Jaguar Racing car fifth on combined times. 

Porsche racer Andre Lotterer took sixth, ahead of Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans. 

2016/2017 champion Lucas di Grassi was second-fastest in the morning and eighth overall on his first outing for Venturi since making the switch from Audi following the German marquee’s exit from the series. 

The Brazilian outpaced new teammate and season seven runner-up Edoardo Mortara and Jake Dennis, who rounded out the top 10 for the rebranded Avalanche Andretti squad. 

Reigning champion Nyck de Vries and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne both featured inside the top 10 in the morning, before the Mercedes pair languished at the very bottom of the order in the afternoon. 

New Andretti recruit Oliver Askew was the fastest of the three rookies ahead of outgoing Alfa Romeo Formula 1 racer Antonio Giovinazzi (Dragon-Penske) and Formula 2 frontrunner Dan Ticktum (NIO 333). 

Aside from brief on-track stoppages for Mahindra duo Oliver Rowland and Alexander Sims, there were no major reliability issues. 

The afternoon session ended early to feature a dedicated simulation run of Formula E’s new shoot-out style elimination qualifying format that will debut in season eight. 

Pre-season testing in Valencia continues on Tuesday.