Jean-Éric Vergne and Oliver Rowland placed DS Techeetah and Mahindra in first and second free practice respectively in Indonesia
The first track activities in the history of Formula E in Indonesia on Friday night ended with two veterans of the category in the lead. Jean-Éric Vergne put DS Techeetah in front in the first free practice, while Oliver Rowland took the lead in TL2.
Rowland set a best time of 1min08s433 and led by only 0s09 to Nissan driver and former teammate Sébastien Buemi. The track set up in the tourist complex of Ancol Beach was quite dirty, with a lot of dust, and improved progressively.
Lucas Di Grassi took third place, while Mitch Evans, Vergne, Jake Dennis, Mitch Evans, António Félix da Costa, Nyck de Vries, Pascal Wehrlein, and Robin Frijns made up the top-10. Sérgio Sette Câmara was 21st. There was also a claim by Da Costa, who was passing De Vries when the Mercedes driver moved his car. The two narrowly missed touching.
The fastest lap of TL2 came at Vergne's last attempt, with the timer indicating the end of the activity, and ended up being the best pre-qualifying: 1min07s594. With this, the two-time champion finished 0s4 ahead of teammate Da Costa, in second place.
Despite the heavy traffic, which was the biggest problem of the activity, there were no bumps on the track. Dennis was third and saw a line formed by Evans, Edoardo Mortara, Dan Ticktum, Oliver Turvey, Wehrlein, Antonio Giovinazzi, and Stoffel Vandoorne in the top-10. Sette Câmara and Di Grassi were, respectively, in 15th and 17th place.
Qualifying is scheduled for 0:40 am (Brasília time, GMT-3), while the race starts at 4:50 am.