Porsche driver Andre Lotterer headed the first day of Formula E 2020/21 pre-season testing at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia.
The 40-year-old set a best lap of 1m20.131s to outpace former DS Techeetah teammate Jean-Eric Vergne by just 0.088s.
The pair’s times from late in the afternoon session superseded reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa’s peak of 1m12.651s.
Formula E rookie Nick Cassidy had headed the times for the majority of the afternoon after achieving a best lap of 1m12.689s. The Envision Virgin driver racked up the miles in his Audi-powered car after previously only having had two test days at the behest of the team’s German powertrain supplier.
Alexander Sims (above) placed fifth in the new Mahindra M7Electro, while Rene Rast made it two Audi-powered cars in the top six.
Norman Nato finished seventh but ended the day’s testing prematurely, just before the 5pm curfew, when he stopped his ROKiT Venturi with just a few minutes of the scheduled timetable remaining.
Nico Mueller, who is yet to be officially confirmed at the newly-named Dragon Penske Autosport squad, placed eighth ahead of Jake Dennis. The British driver was making his public Formula E debut for BMW i Andretti Motorsport.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns completed the top 10, which was covered by just 0.3s.
Formula E in conjunction with the FIA implemented sensors to monitor track limits at several corners. These were Turns 1,6 and 10, and the sensors caught multiple infractions during the six hours of running today.
Mercedes-Benz EQ duo Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries were the only drivers to get an official sanction for multiple track limit infringements, and received a pair of 15-minute stop/go penalties as a result.
The damper morning session featured three red-flag periods, the first caused by Sergio Sette Camara beaching his Penske EV-5 in the gravel.
The second was caused by Sebastien Buemi stopping his Nissan on track and the third was the result of Mitch Evans lightly damaging his Jaguar against the tyres at Turn 6 after a technical issue on his car.
While Sette Camara and Buemi were able to re-join the fray, Evans was forced to sit out a portion of the afternoon session due to a precautionary rear-end change on his Jaguar I-Type 5.
Edoardo Mortara topped the times in the earlier running with a 1m18.148s lap in the three-hour morning session in his Mercedes powered ROKiT Venturi.
The Race understands that organisers will run a practice race to the full ’45 minutes plus one lap’ format tomorrow as per previous seasons.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Andre Lotterer | Porsche | 1:12.519 | |
| 2 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Techeetah | 1:12.607 | 0.088 |
| 3 | Antonio Felix da Costa | DS Techeetah | 1:12.651 | 0.132 |
| 4 | Nick Cassidy | Audi | 1:12.689 | 0.170 |
| 5 | Alexander Sims | Mahindra | 1:12.705 | 0.186 |
| 6 | Rene Rast | Audi | 1:12.740 | 0.221 |
| 7 | Norman Nato | Venturi | 1:12.777 | 0.258 |
| 8 | Nico Mueller | Dragon | 1:12.800 | 0.281 |
| 9 | Jake Dennis | BMW | 1:12.837 | 0.318 |
| 10 | Robin Frijns | Audi | 1:12.860 | 0.341 |
| 11 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi | 1:12.873 | 0.354 |
| 12 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan | 1:13.022 | 0.503 |
| 13 | Maximilian Guenther | BMW | 1:13.059 | 0.540 |
| 14 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan | 1:13.089 | 0.570 |
| 15 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes | 1:13.101 | 0.582 |
| 16 | Sam Bird | Jaguar | 1:13.104 | 0.585 |
| 17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Porsche | 1:13.140 | 0.621 |
| 18 | Alex Lynn | Mahindra | 1:13.328 | 0.809 |
| 19 | Sergio Sette Camara | Dragon | 1:13.492 | 0.973 |
| 20 | Nyck de Vries | Mercedes | 1:13.575 | 1.056 |
| 21 | Oliver Turvey | NIO | 1:14.086 | 1.567 |
| 22 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar | 1:15.093 | 2.574 |
| 23 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi | 1:15.381 | 2.862 |
| 24 | Tom Blomqvist | NIO | 1:16.015 | 3.496 |
