Oliver Rowland topped the opening practice session of the Sao Paulo E-Prix as Season 11 of the ABB Formula E World Championship got underway.
It was a strong session for Nissan, with the factory team locking out the top two spots, while customer NEOM McLaren completed the top five with Taylor Barnard.
Rowland’s best time of 1m10.162 was just 0.080s ahead of his teammate Norman Nato, but a staggering 2.627s quicker than the pole time from last season’s Sao Paulo E-Prix, the addition of all-wheel-drive for full-power laps and stickier Hankook rubber for this season already showing a huge step forward from GEN3 to the new GEN3 Evo formula.
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Jake Dennis was third quickest in the Porsche-powered Andretti, but 0.267s off Rowland’s table-topping time. Edoardo Mortara gave a taste of the step forward Mahindra has been expected to make by ending the session fourth.
Barnard’s fifth-fastest time came towards the end of a session where he completed a high of 21 laps — the only drive above 20, for that matter.
Mitch Evans was the highest-placed Jaguar in sixth for the factory team, despite his car coming to a halt in the final 2 minutes of the session due to as as-yet undiagnosed issue. He got his car going again with 50 seconds to go but was unable to improve his time.
Evans finished ahead of Envision Racing’s customer car of Robin Frijns. The Dutchman was among the first to complete a lap on full power, doing so around halfway through the session, and briefly going top of the charts.
The TAG Heuer Porsches of Antonio Felix da Costa and reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein were next up, with Nick Cassidy rounding out the top 10, which was covered by less than 0.7s. Before setting his session best, Cassidy took his first Attack Mode lap in the final 15 minutes of the session, but was one of several drivers to outbrake themselves in Turn 1 and take to the runoff.
Jake Hughes was 11th for Maserati MSG Racing, ahead of Nyck de Vries in the second Mahindra, DS Penske’s Maximilian Guenther and Lucas di Grassi for Lola Yamaha Abt.
Jean-Eric Vergne ended the day 16th fastest in the second DS Penske, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati), the Kiro Curpa pair of David Beckmann and Dan Ticktum, Zane Maloney (Lola) and Sam Bird (McLaren).
Nico Mueller finished at the bottom of the timesheets on his Andretti debut, his session being interrupted after clipping the wall at Turn 6 after 16 minutes, causing his left rear tire to debead and some minor suspension damage. He was able to get back out but only completed 13 laps in total.
Bird and Mueller were the only drivers not to complete a full power Attack Mode lap.