Sebastien Buemi tops day three of testing at Donington Park
Sebastien Buemi (e.dams-Renault) topped the timesheets for a second time at Donington Park at the end of the third day of official Formula E pre-season testing.
The Swiss driver completed a 1:31.910s lap, which narrowly beat the previous best time from last week by 0.063s set by Audi Sport ABT’s Lucas di Grassi on Friday.
Buemi said: “Today has been good and very productive but it’s not about trying to set the fastest time, it’s about getting a better understanding of the car and the different mapping settings. The car has been reliable all day and the team have done a good job. It’s great to be in a car that you can rely on and know you can push when you need to. We still have a few issues to work on but overall it was a productive session.”
Ex-Formula 1 driver Jerome d’Ambrosio finished second, crossing the line with a 1:32.035s. The Belgian racer spent the day behind the wheel of the China Racing car, building on his experience from the previous week.
Di Grassi, who was fastest in last week's test, set the pace in the morning session with teams continuing to focus on battery management and race simulations. The Brazilian set a 1:32.260s to put him third overall.
Following a lack of running last week, Trulli’s Michela Cerruti managed to get more mileage under her belt, tallying 22 laps with a best of 1:34.538s.
The Italian said: “It's been much better. I’ve done a few laps and can understand a lot more about the tyres and the brakes and how to warm them up. I'm happy with the work we did today. We didn't have any special problems, the next goal is to concentrate on performance.”
Before the lunch break there were several changes at the top of the leaderboard with Buemi edging out Venturi’s Stephane Sarrazin, who finished up fourth.
Bruno Senna enjoyed a productive day for Mahindra, setting the seventh best time. The Brazilian said: “So far I've been very lucky with the car and have been able to fulfil the testing programme and get the car working well. I'm happy with what we've done and what we're learning about the car.”
Argentinean driver Juan Manuel Lopez drove the Formula E development car for the second test in a row and notched up 15 laps in total.
FIA Formula E Championship
Day 3, Donington Park - Test Results (Combined Times):
- Sebastien Buemi, e.dams-Renault, 1:31.910s
- Jerome d’Ambrosio, China Racing, 1:32.035s
- Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT, 1:32.260s
- Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi, 1:32.462s
- Jaime Alguersuari, Virgin Racing, 1:32.495s
- Nicolas Prost, e.dams-Renault, 1:32.671s
- Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing, 1:32.809s
- Sam Bird, Virgin Racing, 1:32.858s
- Daniel Abt, Audi Sport ABT, 1:32.875
- Jarno Trulli, Trulli, 1:33.165s
- Oriol Servia, Dragon Racing, 1:33.844s
- Karun Chandhok, Mahindra Racing, 1:34.249s
- Michela Cerruti, Trulli, 1:34.538s
- Scott Speed, Andretti Autosport, 1:34.871s
- Mike Conway, Dragon Racing, 1:35.643s
- Katherine Legge, Amlin Aguri, 1:35.936s
- Fabio Leimer, Amlin Aguri, 1:36.184s
- Franck Montagny, Andretti Autosport, 1:39.568s
