Formula E | Miami E-Prix | FP1 | Ticktum on top as Cassidy and Da Costa make contact - Motorsport

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It’s time for the first full time gride practice session of the Miami E-Prix, as Formula E drivers get ready to tackle on FP1. Earlier this day, the American track hosted the Rookie Free Practice, with Envision Racing’s Zak O’Sullivan leading the way.

Green flag for FP1!

Under the grey sky, the colourful electric challengers paint a bright and contrasting picture. As commonplace for Formula E, in the initial minutes a full course yellow flag was issued for safety testing purposes. Five minutes into the session, reigning champion Oliver Rowland sets the first almost significant time of the session by going below the 1:03s.

At the debuting for Formula E Miami International Autodromo, Andretti begins its first FP1 session by sporting a rather different look, featuring the black and yellow of their newest sponsor TWG Ai.

Jaguar’s Da Costa had a moment by running over the kerbs at the challenging Turn 6-Turn 8 section. It is a rather aggressive series of chicanes, which will definitely prove dangerous if approached too fast.

Ten minutes into the session, Eriksson leads from Martí and Rowland, with Mahindra’s De Vries setting an impressive 57:30 to dethrone the Swede. The Cupra Kiro driver is the only one allowed to take the track during the previous session, giving him a bit more wheel-on knowledge and feeling compared to his rivals.

Some tricky sections challenge the drivers

Mueller struggles with oversteering at Turn 1, flat-spotting his tyre. Rowland bolts on top of the standings with a 55.93, over a second ahead of the next fastest driver in Ticktum, with the Porsche driver joining the Brits 0.226s faster than the Nissan man while on Attack Mode.

Porsche’s Mueller as well as former Porsche man Da Costa appear to be encountering a bit of adaptation challenges at the track where their teammate Pascal Wehrlein had been rather successful. In fact, the Portuguese ran wide at the apex of Turn 13.

At the halfway moment of the session Mueller still leads from Rowland, Ticktum, Mortara, Eriksson, Barnard, Buemi, Da Costa, Evans and De Vries.

Envision Racing’s good streak of performance continues following from Buemi’s Mexico City pole position, Eriksson’s recovery run and O’Sullivan’s earlier P1, with the Swiss jumping up to P2, 0.140s off Mueller’s P1.

Final trips of the day

In the meantime, championship leader and latest race winner Nick Cassidy remains in P20 at the back of the grid, focusing on race pace simulations. Additionally, he’s also struggling with track limits, with five lap times deleted.

Qualifying will definitely be a concern, forcing drivers to fight for track position and the needed space to perform timed laps.

In the final ten minutes of the session, Barnard bolts to P1 with a 55.65 and immediately pits for a darker visor, mentioning the fact he can’t see due to the intensity of the sun. As usual at this stage of practice, times begin to rapidly improve , with Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum going 0.150s faster.

Andretti’s Drugovich, who has been having lack of feeling issues since the beginning of the session, pits, bringing up a matter of car and tyre overheating which definitely hindered his scarce on-track time.

With only three minutes left, the majority of the drivers opt for an Attack Mode test, as Cassidy finally joins the top 5 and De Vries slots into the podium. The entire field is incredibly close, with only 0.755s separating session leader Dan Ticktum to Nato in P20.

At the end of the Formula E FP1 in Miami, Cassidy and Da Costa make slight contact at Turn 8, with the Citroën driver on a fast lap and the Jaguar new entry just cruising back to the pits.

Tune in tomorrow for the main event