Formula E: Nato and Nissan top Thursday testing

Nissan’s Norman Nato fired to the top of the timesheets on Thursday’s fifth test session from Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia.

On his first official Formula E outing following his return to the series after a year out, the Frenchman steered to a 1m25.776s lap, which was enough to pip next best driver Oliver Rowland in the Mahindra by a tenth of a second.

Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing’s new signing, turned in a 1m26.066s to placve third with Edo Mortara continuing Maserati MSG Racing’s hot streak with the fourth quickest time of the hour-long session.

The two Jaguar TCR Racing I-TYPE 6s, with Mitch Evans heading Sam Bird.

Reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne (DS PENSKE) looked to have pinched the benchmark time at the last, only for his final run to be deleted for exceeding track limits.

Maximilian Guenther’s streak of three table topping times came to an end – the German found himself 19th this time around and a couple of seconds away from the ultimate pace.

Testing comes to a close on Friday with two sessions.

Thursday Results

POS DRIVER TEAM NO. TIME BEHIND GAP
1 N. NATO NISSAN FORMULA E TEAM 17 1:25.776 0.000 0.000
2 O. ROWLAND MAHINDRA RACING 8 1:25.883 0.107 0.107
3 S. BUEMI ENVISION RACING 16 1:26.066 0.290 0.183
4 E. MORTARA MASERATI MSG RACING 48 1:26.304 0.528 0.238
5 M. EVANS JAGUAR TCS RACING 9 1:26.343 0.567 0.039
6 S. BIRD JAGUAR TCS RACING 10 1:26.394 0.618 0.051
7 R. FRIJNS ABT CUPRA FORMULA E TEAM 4 1:26.397 0.621 0.003
8 S. VANDOORNE DS PENSKE 1 1:26.441 0.665 0.044
9 J. VERGNE DS PENSKE 25 1:26.486 0.710 0.045
10 J. HUGHES NEOM MCLAREN FORMULA E TEAM 5 1:26.627 0.851 0.141
11 J. DENNIS AVALANCHE ANDRETTI FORMULA E 27 1:26.627 0.851 0.000
12 P. WEHRLEIN TAG HEUER PORSCHE FORMULA E TEAM 94 1:26.912 1.136 0.285
13 R. RAST NEOM MCLAREN FORMULA E TEAM 58 1:26.938 1.162 0.026
14 A. DA COSTA TAG HEUER PORSCHE FORMULA E TEAM 13 1:26.987 1.211 0.049
15 D. TICKTUM NIO 333 RACING FORMULA E TEAM 33 1:27.224 1.448 0.237
16 L. DI GRASSI MAHINDRA RACING 11 1:27.525 1.749 0.301
17 S. FENESTRAZ NISSAN FORMULA E TEAM 23 1:27.615 1.839 0.090
18 S. SETTE CÂMARA NIO 333 RACING FORMULA E TEAM 3 1:27.735 1.959 0.120
19 M. GÜNTHER MASERATI MSG RACING 7 1:28.073 2.297 0.338
20 A. LOTTERER AVALANCHE ANDRETTI FORMULA E 36 1:31.330 5.554 3.257
21 N. CASSIDY ENVISION RACING 37 1:34.108 8.332 2.778
22 N. MÜLLER ABT CUPRA FORMULA E TEAM 51