Di Grassi lowers pace in Formula E Punta del Este FP2 

Lucas di Grassi lowered the pace to put Audi on top of the timesheets during the second Formula E practice session for the Punta del Este E-Prix, which was disrupted by a red flag. 

The reigning Formula E champion posted the fastest ever lap around the Punta del Este street circuit, becoming the only driver to dip into the 1:13s. 

Di Grassi’s lap of a 1:13.672 was over a second quicker than the time Sebastien Buemi managed in the opening practice session and put him four tenths clear of DS Virgin’s Sam Bird in second place. 

Di Grassi scored his first points of the season in Mexico City after being plagued by a number of reliability problems following a difficult start to the 2017/18 campaign for Audi. 

Mitch Evans was just shy of Bird in third place, as Jaguar continued its impressive start in Uruguay by making it into the top ten in both practice sessions.

NIO’s Oliver Turvey was fourth fastest, having been the early pacesetter before Andretti’s Tom Blomqvist hit the wall and brought out the red flags.  

The Briton ran wide into the Turn 10 chicane and was launched over the kerbs, pitching him into the barriers on the exit of the corner. The impact caused significant damage to the rear left of his Andretti car, ripping the driveshaft clean out. 

After second practice resumed following a five minute clean up operation, di Grassi wasted no time in getting up to speed, smashing the previous record lap by 1.2s as he turned his Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler car up to 200kW for his qualifying simulation.  

Nico Prost was the highest-placed Renault e.dams driver in fifth place, with teammate and morning pacesetter Buemi 11th after seeing his run heavily compromised by traffic. 

Points leader Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth quickest, ahead of Edoardo Mortara’s Venturi, the Mahindra of Nick Heidfield, Blomqvist and Alex Lynn, in a session that saw nine of Formula E’s ten teams fill the top 10 spots.