Tag: Norman Nato

Nato tops opening Portland E-Prix practice for Andretti

Norman Nato put Andretti atop of the times on home soil in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Portland E-Prix. The Frenchman set a best time of 1m09.079s, with a session-best first sector, beating both factory Jaguars to the top spot. …

Norman Nato put Andretti atop of the times on home soil in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Portland E-Prix.

The Frenchman set a best time of 1m09.079s, with a session-best first sector, beating both factory Jaguars to the top spot. It wasn’t all good news for Nato, though, after he was given a reprimand for speeding under full course yellow. As it was his third driving infringement reprimand of the season, it resulted in a 10-place grid penalty being levied for Saturday’s race.

Mitch Evans was second fastest, 0.174s behind Nato and a mere 0.033s ahead of his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy, with Antonio Felix da Costa – who found out this week that the appeal against his disqualification from the first Misano E-Prix race was unsuccessful earlier this week – in fourth for TAG Heuer Porsche.

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Nyck de Vries was a fine fifth for Mahindra Racing, 0.340s off the top spot, ahead of Abt Cupra’s Lucas di Grassi and Pascal Wehrlein in the second works Porsche. Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), Maximilian Guenther (Maserati MSG Racing) and Edoardo Mortara completed the top 10, which was covered by just over 0.5s. Mortara and de Vries, however, found themselves under investigation for a “technical infraction” at the end of the session.

Jehan Daruvala was 0.144s off that top 10, finishing the session 11th in the second Maserati, ahead of reigning champion Jake Dennis (Andretti) Sam Bird (NEOM McLaren), Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra) and the DS Penske pairing of Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne.

Jake Hughes was next up for McLaren, with ERT’s Dan Ticktum 18th, and  Caio Collet – filling in for the unwell Oliver Rowland – 19th for Nissan, two places ahead of his teammate Sacha Fenestraz. The pair were separated by Robin Frijns, with his Envision Racing stablemate Sebastien Buemi completing the field.

RESULTS

Nato, Vergne tied atop FP2 time sheets at Shanghai E-Prix

After winding up second in Friday’s first practice session, Norman Nato moved to the top of the times in FP2 for the Shanghai E-Prix, setting an identical time to Jean-Eric Vergne. The Andretti driver’s time of 1m13.430 was matched by the DS Penske …

After winding up second in Friday’s first practice session, Norman Nato moved to the top of the times in FP2 for the Shanghai E-Prix, setting an identical time to Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Andretti driver’s time of 1m13.430 was matched by the DS Penske man, who ended up second only by setting his time later in the session – that time being a couple of tenths off Friday’s fastest by virtue of the cooler conditions. The top three itself was covered by just 0.0013s, with TAG Heuer Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein P3.

Stoffel Vandoorne in the second DS Pesnke was fourth, just over a tenth of a second of the fastest time, with Nyck de Vries going fifth quickest in his Mahindra after having an interrupted first practice as one of several drivers affected by battery software issues.

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Sacha Fenestraz was the highest-placed Nissan runner in sixth, ahead of Berlin E-Prix race two winner Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche), with Robin Frijns (Envision Racing), Nick Cassidy (Jaguar TCS Racing), and Maximilian Guenther (Maserati MSG) rounding out the top 10.

FP1 pacesetter Mitch Evans was a quarter of a second off the session best in 12th for Jaguar, behind Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller, but ahead of reigning champion, Andretti’s Jake Dennis, with veterans Sebastien Buemi (Envision) and Lucas di Grassi (Abt Cupra) next up.

Rowland was 16th quickest for Nissan, ahead of the ERT pairing of Dan Ticktum and Sergio Sette Camara, with Edorardo Mortara (Mahindra), Jehan Daruvala (Maserati), and the NEOM McLarens of Sam Bird and Jake Hughes completing the field.

As with Friday’s FP1 session, all runners completed their best times using the full allocation of 350 kW. In addition to going quickest, Nato also completed the most laps with 21, along with Daruvala, while both Cassidy and Guenther completed the fewest, doing just 16 laps during the 30 minute session. The whole field was covered by just 0.572s.

RESULTS