Norman Nato set the pace in second practice for the Diriyah E-Prix, vaulting to the top of the times in his very last lap of the session. In a daytime session not entirely representative of the cooler nighttime conditions drivers will face in today’s qualifying and race, the Andretti Global driver set a best time of 1m13.584s to beat Maserati MSG’s Maximilliam Guenther by 0.031s.
The top five was occupied by four different drivetrains, with the Porsche-powered Andretti entry of Jake Dennis the only outlier. He was third fastest, ahead of Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi who rebounded after battery issues on Friday, while Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans rounded out the top five as another driver to set his best time as the checkered flag flew.
DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne missed out on the top-five by 0.002s, while Nissan’s Oliver Rownland and Sacha Fenestraz wound up seventh and eighth after a late surge. Lucas Di Grassi (Abt Cupra) and Nick Cassidy (Jaguar) completed the top-10.
Dan Ticktum (ERT) and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) were next, with Sam Bird (NEOM McLaren) and Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra) 13th and 14th respectively. Pascal Wehrlein was the highest-placed factory Porsche entry in 15th, a stark contrast to the customer Andretti entries. Antonio Felix da Costa was 22nd and last in the other TAG Heuer Porsche entry, with the pair being split by Jake Hughes (NEOM McLaren), Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), Eduardo Mortara (Mahindra), Robin Frijns (Envision), Nyck de Vries (Mahindra), and Jehan Daruvala (Maserati).