Yahoo Autos Cassidy keeps Jaguar on top in final practice in Shanghai
Jaguar TCS Racing picked up where they left off by topping the timesheets in the third practice session at the Shanghai E-Prix with Nick Cassidy.
Cassidy finished third in Saturday’s race at Shanghai International Circuit as teammate Mitch Evans won, and set a best time of 1m 13.500 on Sunday morning to claim top spot.
Dan Ticktum was an impressive second for the unfancied ERT squad, competing in its home event, setting a best time just 0.089s adrift of Cassidy’s benchmark late in the session.
Antonio Felix da Costa was third for TAG Heuer Porsche, ahead of Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther, with Evans ensuring Jaguar bookended the Top-five.
Jake Hughes got McLaren’s mega Sunday off to a strong start, placing sixth for the NEOM-backed outfit. McLaren is the only brand racing in both the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 later on Sunday, in addition to its Formula E exploits in the far east.
The DS Penskes of Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne were next, with Robin Frijns splitting the pair in his Envision Racing-entered Jaguar, while Jehan Daruvala made it two Maseratis in the top-10, completing practice in 10th.
Andretti’s Jake Dennis finished on the fringes of the top-10, 0.048s off Daruvala in 11th, with Lucas di Grassi 12 for Abt Cupra, Pascal Wehrlein 13th in the second Porsche, and Oliver Rowland 14th for Nissan. Sebastien Buemi was 15th-quickest for Envision, with Sergio Sette Camara 16th in the second ERT, and Nico Mueller 17th for ABt Cupra.
After scoring his first points of the season on Saturday, Nyck de Vries finished Sunday’s opening session in 18th, ahead of his Mahindra teammate Edorardo Mortara, with Sam bird (McLaren), Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) and Norman Nato (Andretti) completing the field.
Bird, Fenestraz, and Andretti were the only drivers to not do their fastest laps on 350kW. Seven drivers completed a session high of 20 laps – Frijns, Vandoorne, Daruvala, Wehrlein, Buemi, Sette Camara, and Mueller – while Nato completed the lowest number of laps with just nine.
