Formula E’s rookie drivers were handed their short moment in the spotlight in this weekend’s Rookie Free Practice in Miami. The 40-minute session offered a crucial opportunity to demonstrate their talent at the wheel of the Gen3 Evo and supply their teams with more data.
Nissan was the only team to let two rookies drive, running Abbi Pulling and Gabriele Mini. Elsewhere, Andretti selected Dennis Hauger, Jaguar placed its trust in Alessandro Giusti, and Citroën ran Theo Pourchaire. Mahindra handed its car to Chloe Chambers, DS Penske opted for Nikita Bedrin, and Envision Racing gave track time to Zak O’Sullivan.
Porsche fielded works driver Ayhancan Güven, while Hugh Barter represented the Lola squad. A recent regulation change also allowed Pepe Martí to take part for Cupra Kiro, despite the Spaniard driving in this Formula E season full-time. Read more about the Rookies and their accomplishments here.
Cautious Start as Strategies Vary
The green flag was waved at 14:30 local track time, with the first cars heading out onto the Miami circuit. Early running was more conservative. Pulling returned to the garage after just one lap, with Mini following shortly after. Five minutes in, no representative lap times had been set, as teams focused on build-up laps and energy preparation rather than outright pace.
As confidence grew, lap times began to fall. Chloe Chambers was the first to break the 1:01 barrier for Mahindra, before Theo Pourchaire surged to the top in the Citroën with a 58.815-second lap. At the 12-minute mark, Martí raised the bar significantly, going fastest with a 56.133, placing him 1.370 seconds clear of Pourchaire. The session remained calm, with no major incidents on track.
Deleted Laps and a Shifting Leaderboard
By 14 minutes, most drivers had returned to their garages, leaving Chambers as the sole car out on track. She sat, at that time, 11th with a 58.947, 2.814 seconds off Martí’s benchmark. Shortly afterwards, Hugh Barter had a lap deleted after running wide at Turn 13, exceeding track limits.
After the halfway point, Pourchaire reclaimed the top spot, setting the fastest lap of the session with a 55.903. With 10 minutes remaining, the provisional Top 11 were Pourchaire, Martí, Bedrin, Giusti, Hauger, Güven, Barter, O’Sullivan, Mini, Pulling and Chambers.
Pulling then suffered a small spin at Turn 11, flatspotting her tyres but crucially avoiding the wall. First prompting visible relief from Nissan, but ruining future run times. Likewise, Martí later had a lap deleted with eight minutes to go for track limits at Turn 13. A few minutes later, Pulling lost another time for the same infringement.
O’Sullivan Strikes Late to Top the Session
The decisive moment came with four minutes left. Zak O’Sullivan lit up the timing screens, jumping to the top with a 55.819-second lap, a time that would not be beaten. When the chequered flag fell, O’Sullivan had trumped Pourchaire by 0.093 seconds. Mini followed just 0.111 back, ahead of Martí (+0.323), Bedrin (+0.435) and Giusti (+0.468). Hauger, Güven, Barter, Chambers and Pulling completed the classification.
With free practice complete, the rookies carried out practice starts before returning to the garages. The session had valuable mileage logged, and several performances are sure to have caught the attention of Formula E’s team principals.