Today’s Free Practice 1 was incredibly frustrating for a lot of the drivers. With the weather becoming unpredictable, the rain seems to be an issue all weekend. The first practice session was unfortunately shunted, meaning the drivers leave Friday with a lack of meaningful data.
Weather the Talking Point of the Weekend
40 minutes on the clock and the drivers were eager to head straight out onto the circuit. The Porsche drivers sat front of the pack, having the advantage of pitlane position.
Light rain loomed over the track, with showed forming initially in the final section. Practice in the rain will be important, allowing the teams to have a full range of data from all surfaces. The forecast shows that the drivers should expect plenty of wet spells across the weekend, playing largely into strategy and handling.
The conversation of handling came up early, with Oliver Rowland only lasting a few laps before reporting a handling problem. He told his team that his “steering is really heavy”, becoming particularly worse when he is breaking. Nissan wasted no time bringing him back in to investigate.
The Conditions Proved Tricky
It took a bit longer for the drivers to get the tyres up to temperature before the 300KW flying laps began rolling in. Eduardo Mortara was the first to display a competitive time.
Over at Lola Yamaha, the rain conditions presented them with a different strategy idea for FP1. With Zane Maloney, they opted for the qualifying sim early on in the session, to combat the change of rain. His lap wasn’t exactly how he expected, with the cameras capturing his close call moment.
Jake Dennis also had a close call into the final corner, cutting across the grass but maintaining composure. He was quick to let the team know what happened, warning about the increased rain. Dennis enters Shanghai as the most recent Formula E winner, claiming two podiums in Sanya. He hones in on the top 4 championship runners, after all four failed to score any points.
The Rain Rolled In
At the midpoint of the session, the Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein sat the man to best, but those who remained out on the circuit faced increased traction issues due to the rain. Dan Ticktum was one of the initial drivers to return to the pit lane, after he felt the conditions weren’t appropriate for the car set up.
“It’s starting to make a difference now. I would say we box and sort of wait for it to rain, to be honest.”
His call came after his push lap was disrupted, losing traction in the final chicane, ruining what he believed would have been the fastest lap of the session. A change of set up and tyres was due for most of the drivers. The weather in Shanghai remains unpredictable so the running during the wet conditions will be useful for both the drivers and the teams.
Pepe Martí found himself overshooting the corner at turn 6, heading straight off but maintaining control of his Cupra Kiro. With the increased rain, he Spaniard missed the breaking and couldn’t slow the car down in time. Norman Nato later had a near-identical incident.
No Representative Lap Times
The rain persisted, and eventually standing water appeared around the circuit. Because of this, almost every driver began struggling for grip and control. Entering the closing stages of FP1, it looked increasingly likely that the teams wouldn’t get the chance to gain data in dry conditions.
Turn 6 became trickiest breaking point to nail, with a hand-full of drivers by the chequered flag having missed the corner, including Maloney and Mortara. The rain meant that no driver was able to beat the dry lap benchmark set by Pascal Wehrlein. A time of 1:09.259 remained the best of the session.
Despite the finish times not being completely representative, it was Jean-Eric Vergne 0.190 seconds behind Wehrlein and Nico Müller third fastest. The two Mahindra drivers managed 5th and 6th in FP1 with the final spots in the top ten being taken up by Maloney and Felipe Drugovich. Maloney’s result gives promising signs that he will have a good chance during tomorrow’s qualifying in mixed conditions.