Buemi tops day three of Donington Park Formula E testing
In dry conditions, the 25-year-old Swiss racer posted a 1:31.910s early in the afternoon session using the full GP circuit – narrowly beating Lucas di Grassi’s best time from last week’s two-day test with the Abt driver ending the day third overall. Ex-Formula 1 driver Jerome d’Ambrosio finished second with the Belgian taking advantage of being able to test both China Racing cars.
"Today has been good and very productive but it’s not about trying to set the fastest time, it's about getting a better understanding of the car and the different mapping settings," said Buemi. "The car has been reliable all day and the team have done a good job. It’s great to be in a car that you can rely on and know you can push when you need to. We still have a few issues to work on but overall it was a productive session."
By the halfway point it was Di Grassi who led the way before Buemi lowered the benchmark beating his previous best lap by over a second and ending the day the only driver to break into the 1:31s. Venturi's Stephane Sarrazin, also using two cars due to an absent Nick Heidfeld, finished fourth ahead of Virgin Racing’s Jaime Alguersuari who only ran in the afternoon stint with team-mate Sam Bird finishing eighth from his morning run.
Nicolas Prost (e.dams-Renault) and Mahindra's Racing Bruno Senna finished sixth and seventh respectively with Audi Sport Abt’s Daniel Abt and Jarno Trulli (Trulli) rounding out the top 10.
Trulli’s teammate Michela Cerruti also enjoyed positive running to finish 13th with the Italian saying: “It's been much better. I’ve done a few laps and can understand a lot more about the tires and the brakes and how to warm them up. I'm happy with the work we did today. We didn't have any special problems, the next goal is to concentrate on performance."
Testing, which remains free to members of the public, continues tomorrow where rain is expected all day. For more information on Formula E visit www.fiaformulae.com.
FIA Formula E Championship – Day 3, Donington Park – Test results (Combined times):
1. Sebastien Buemi, e.dams-Renault, 1:31.910s
2. Jerome d'Ambrosio, China Racing, 1:32.035s
3. Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT, 1:32.260s
4. Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi, 1:32.462s
5. Jaime Alguersuari, Virgin Racing, 1:32.495s
6. Nicolas Prost, e.dams-Renault, 1:32.671s
7. Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing, 1:32.809s
8. Sam Bird, Virgin Racing, 1:32.858s
9. Daniel Abt, Audi Sport ABT, 1:32.875
10. Jarno Trulli, Trulli, 1:33.165s
11. Oriol Servia, Dragon Racing, 1:33.844s
12. Karun Chandhok, Mahindra Racing, 1:34.249s
13. Michela Cerruti, Trulli, 1:34.538s
14. Scott Speed, Andretti Autosport, 1:34.871s
15. Mike Conway, Dragon Racing, 1:35.643s
16. Katherine Legge, Amlin Aguri, 1:35.936s
17. Fabio Leimer, Amlin Aguri, 1:36.184s
18. Franck Montagny, Andretti Autosport, 1:39.568s