Mahindra leads the way in second day of FE testing at Valencia

Mahindra set the pace on the second day of Formula E testing, with Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries topping the times in the morning of the second day of running in Valencia.

The Indian squad was the team to beat for much of the morning, with Mortara going to the top in the first 30 minutes before being usurped by de Vries, only to move back to the fore in the final half hour with a 1m 21.493s lap time – just 0.093s quicker than de Vries.

Jake Dennis was once again third in the morning, with Monday pacesetter Pascal Wehrlein fourth, ahead of Porsche teammate Nico Mueller, who briefly interrupted the Mahindras at the top of the times.

Dan Ticktum entered the top six for the first time in the morning for Cupra Kiro, before going on to set the fastest time in the afternoon, albeit 0.253s off Mortara’s morning benchmark.

Taylor Barnard recovered from his off on Monday to go seventh-quickest in the morning. He improved to third in the afternoon behind Ticktum and Mueller, and ahead of Mitch Evans who was fourth-quickest for Jaguar TCS Racing in the afternoon, having been 12th in the morning, and top of the times for a short period in the afternoon. His new teammate Antonio Felix da Costa was 13th in both sessions.

Barnard’s DS Penske teammate Maximilian Guenther was eighth in both sessions too, with Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis ahead of him in the afternoon.

With teams focusing on differing programs, there were significant shifts across the day. Cassidy was 10th quickest in the morning, with Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi ninth, while Cassidy’s Citroen teammate Jean-Eric Vergne was ninth in the afternoon, an improvement from 19th earlier in the day.

Kiro newcomer Pepe Marti enjoyed a similar vault up the times, languishing in 20th in the first session of the day before moving up to 10th in the second.

Mortara – who ‘won’ the short race simulation, an exercise to test certain scenarios and safety measures which took place ahead of the afternoon test – and de Vries ended the afternoon 12th and 15th respectively.

The Nissans of Norman Nato and Oliver Rowland finished the day at the bottom of the times after having worked on 300kW, rear-wheel-drive laps in the afternoon. Rowland was 14th  (with Nato 15th) in the morning, the reigning champion bringing out a red flag near the end of the session for an off at the Turn 13-14 chicane.