Mitch Evans was fastest again as Formula E testing resumed in Valencia on Thursday. After topping an abbreviated first day of running, the Jaguar TCS Racing man’s best time of 1m24.791 narrowly beat Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa by 0.023s.
Da Costa — who was also second on Tuesday — only ran in the final hour, with his car being driven by ADAC Prototype Cup LMP3 race winner Gabriela Jilkova for the first part of the day. Similarly, Evans’ best time came late in the day, usurping long-time table-topper Eduardo Mortara, who wound up third for Mahindra, setting his best time after briefly stopping with power issues.
Mahindra had to contend with running a condensed program during the day, with some of its infrastructure damaged in the fire at WAE’s adjacent garage on Tuesday.
“As a result of the fire, Mahindra Racing sustained damage to its trackside infrastructure. The damage includes but is not limited to the team’s IT infrastructure, engineering stations and to both race cars,” the team explained in a statement.
Mortara was subsequently the team’s sole runner on Thursday, with 2020-21 series champion Nyck de Vries sidelined.
Robin Frijns was fourth fastest for Envision racing, with Pascal Wehrlein fifth, once again ensuring that Porsche was the only team with two drivers in the top five.
Maximilian Gunther, the fastest driver in three of the last four pre-seasons, was sixth for Maserati MSG Racing ahead of Nissan’s Oliver Rowland, Norman Nato of Andretti Global, Maserati rookie Jehan Daruvala, and Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy rounding out the top 10 with Jean Eric Vergne (DS Penske) and reigning champion Jake Dennis — who didn’t run on Tuesday with his Andretti Global car being driven by Zane Maloney.
Making his on-track debut for McLaren after being deputized by Taylor Barnard on Tuesday, Sam Bird was 18th one spot behind Sebastien Buemi, 0.46s off his teammate Jake Dennis who was 14th, splitting Abt Cupra duo Mico Mueller and Lucas di Grassi.
Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan), Dan Ticktum and Sergio Sette Camara (both ERT) completed the runners.
Testing at Valencia continues on Friday.
