Mortara leads Valencia Formula E testing for Venturi

Images courtesy of Formula E

Mortara leads Valencia Formula E testing for Venturi

International Racing

Mortara leads Valencia Formula E testing for Venturi

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ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara recorded the fastest time of the week during the final session at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia as the ABB FIA Formula E world championship’s official pre-season test drew to a close.

Mortara set a lap time of 1m25.763s mid-way through the session, besting the previous benchmark set by Mercedes-EQ Formula E’s Stoffel Vandoorne on Tuesday by almost a second.

“It’s always nice to top the timesheets for the week of testing and this is extremely positive,” said Mortara. “There is still a lot of work to do ahead of the first race to improve but overall our performance shows we are going in the right direction. The team performed well this week and working with Lucas for the first time we showed a good understanding and as a team ROKiT Venturi Racing are benefitting from his experience.”

DS Techeetah’s two-time series champion Jean-Eric Vergne placed the next best time of the week, just 0.04s back, while another Mercedes-EQ powertrain closed out the top three times of the week, with Vandoorne’s Silver Arrow 02 also within a tenth of-a-second.

“Valencia was a very positive test, potentially our best winter test yet, so I’m very pleased with the program we had,” said Vergne. “We tested everything we wanted to and now we have a good amount of data to analyze and understand to be ready for the first race in Diriyah (in January). Everybody is very motivated and I’m looking forward to getting started and a good season ahead.”

A late lap from Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans saw the New Zealander place fourth, and another last-minute effort from TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team’s Pascal Wehrlein hurled the German up the order into fifth spot. Reigning champion Nyck de Vries followed next, with the Envision Racing pair of Nick Cassidy and Robin Frijns also within the 1m25s mark.

Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia

The top 17 drivers recorded times faster than Antonio Felix da Costa’s pole position qualifying lap from last season. Over the week, ABB Formula E teams and drivers racked up more than 4,100 laps of the Valencia circuit as the Formula E cars hit the track for their only pre-season test.

Season 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will start in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia on January 28 and 29, 2022, as the first of 16 races in 12 locations including Jakarta, Vancouver, Mexico City and London before concluding in South Korea in August.

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