BMW i Andretti Motorsport pair Maximilian Guenther and Jake Dennis topped the timesheets in Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning ahead of the Heineken® London E-Prix Round 12, with Porsche's Andre Lotterer rounding out the top three.
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After a scorching week in the English capital, the rain swept across London's docklands overnight, making conditions extremely tricky - particularly given the indoor/outdoor nature of the unique circuit that twists inside the ExCeL London exhibition centre and along the Victoria Docks frontage.
Not the start to the session @svandoorne or @MercedesEQFE would have been hoping for 😫
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 24, 2021
That's the end of Vandoorne's running this morning. Will the team be able to get the car ready for qualifying?
🇬🇧 2021 @Heineken#LondonEPrix
With heavy standing water outside, drivers - as they'd predicted earlier in the week - were dragging the weather inside with them, creating a slippery racing line, particularly immediately off the entrance ramp into the final couple of corners on the 22-turn circuit.
Guenther, Dennis and Lotterer were the best of the late runners, pipping Brit Alex Lynn's earlier time that stood as the benchmark for a good stretch of the session.
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The Mahindra Racing driver wound up fourth while Sergio Sette Camara (DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT) survived a half spin to set the fifth fastest time and Mercedes-EQ's Nyck de Vries rounded out the top six.
The conditions caught out a few, with de Vries' Mercedes teammate Stoffel Vandoorne finding the wall after slip 'n' sliding over a pedestrian crossing. That damage ended the Belgian's FP2, while Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) got lucky - pulling a full 360 spin and escaping any real damage bar a kiss on the nose of his Audi e-tron FE07.
Standings leader Sam Bird (Jaguar Racing) finds himself in 12th spot.
More than just lap times
Lap times aren't the only focus in practice. Drivers and engineers will be working flat out to understand how the all new ExCeL Circuit will affect things like energy management profiles and setup - and with the rain, the wet/dry nature of a lap with the indoor/outdoor layout provides a doubly unique challenge.
READ MORE: London E-Prix track guide
On top of energy management, teams work through everything from their systems, setups, FANBOOST and ATTACK MODE deployments and launches throughout practice to make sure they're on-point for qualifying and the race later in the day.
Qualifying ahead of the Heineken® London E-Prix Round 12 is up next at from 10:45 BST and the race itself follows from 14:30 local time.