Sam Bird Santiago ePrix Formula E Practice Chile

Santiago ePrix

Bird tops Santiago ePrix practice one

Bird leads the way in practice for the Santiago ePrix

Sam Hall

Saturday 18 January 2020 13:02 Updated: 13:15

Sam Bird tops free practice one in Chile ahead of the Santiago ePrix. Championship leader Alexander Sims in position seven.

Sims (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) had a slight scare in the early stages of the session. Following a battery problem during the shakedown on Friday, it briefly looked as though the problems had reappeared but a simple reboot later and the British driver was able to take to the track.

Midway through the session, Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams) clumsily ran into the back of Maximilian Gunther (BMW i Andretti Motorsport). The BMW driver had been going slowly round the final corner in preparation for a fast lap and Rowland, caught by surprise at the slow moving car ahead of him, made minor contact.

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Slight damage was done to the front of the Nissan but the team chose to leave the damaged wing on the car with only limited spares available for the weekend.

With four-minutes remaining on the clock, the times began to fall with drivers going to full qualifying mode. Reigning two-time champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) failed to register a representative time after being blocked by Daniel Abt (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team) and early pacesetter Andre Lotterer (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team) dropped to tenth by the end of the session.

As the checkered flag fell on the session, Bird rose to the top with Antonio Felix da Costa (DS Techeetah) joining him at the top of the order. Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team) felt he had failed to extract the best from his car despite finishing the session in fourth place.

1 Sam Bird Envision Virgin Racing 1:04.914 2 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah +0.150 3 Edoardo Mortara ROKiT Venturi Racing +0.182 4 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team +0.289 5 Nico Muller GEOX Dragon +0.338 6 Jerome d’Ambrosio Mahindra Racing +0.400 7 Alexander Sims BMW i Andretti Motorsport +0.474 8 Sebastian Buemi Nissan e.dams +0.483 9 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Racing +0.515 10 Andre Lotterer TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team +0.538 11 James Calado Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.558 12 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team +0.592 13 Mitch Evans Panasonic Jaguar Racing +0.599 14 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams +0.655 15 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team +0.718 16 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah +0.745 17 Maximilian Gunther BMW i Andretti Motorsport +0.792 18 Nyck de Vries Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team +0.869 19 Oliver Turvey NIO 333 FE Team +1.162 20 Robin Frijns Envision Virgin Racing +1.207 21 Felipe Massa ROKiT Venturi Racing +1.279 22 Brendon Hartley GEOX Dragon +1.594 23 Neel Jani TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team +1.694 24 Ma Qinghua NIO 333 FE Team +2.123