Brilliance from Nissan sees them end FP1 1-2 as Brit Oliver Rowland fastest! Official F1 Journal Formula E Jeddah E-Prix free practice 1 report

Credit: Joe Portlock

A superb free practice 1 for Nissan, saw British talent Oliver Rowland finish fastest under the night skies of Jeddah.

Rowland shone once again and he would be part of a 1-2 finish in the opening 22-car free practice session of this weekend's double-round in the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The British driver set a 1:15.849, which was over a tenth of a second faster than his Nissan teammate and French racing driver Norman Nato would finish second. Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara completed the top three.

Porsche racer and championship leader Antonio Felix Da Costa would finish eighth, two places behind championship leader Pascal Wehrlein who was sixth.

How free practice 1 unfolded at the Jeddah E-Prix

Arrving at a brand new Saudi Arabian city in Jeddah for the very first time, Formula E had reason to be excited to race at a brand new venue for the first double-round weekend of the 2024/25 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Following the day's earlier rookie free practice test, it was time for the world championship action with the full grid of 22 drivers, and 11 teams with two cars in each team. This would conclude Thursday's action as the grid was preparing for free practice 1.

This would be the start of the double-round weekend for the full time grid with action taking place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which is known to the world of motorsport as the venue for the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. This Formula E layout would be a different layout in comparison to the one of Formula 1 Grand Prix.

For the first 40-minute practice session of this double-round weekend, the green light would be on at the end of the pit lane, meaning the session would be underway. The sun had fully set for free practice 1 and the running would be completed under the night skies with the street lights glowing up the Gen 3 cars.

As is common with Formula E free practice 1, it would begin with a test of the full course yellow being undertaken by the new Formula E FIA race director Marek Hanaczweski following the departure of the previous race director Scott Elkins.

This full course yellow test would not last long and drivers would begin looking to try and set fast flying laps to try and find the limits and where the grip will be in a different variation of layout of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Drivers would begin to lay down their first lap times and DS Penske and Maserati would look to have good pace as Jean-Eric Vergne of DS Penske, would put himself provisionally fastest overall, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in second for Maserati.

A tough start to the weekend for Lucas Di Grassi and Zane Maloney of Lola Yamaha as they would each undertake a 20-place grid penalty for breaking the seals of the E-Motors on the car which is classed as a mechanical infringement within the regulations. Therefore, both drivers victims of punishments towards their cars.

Within the first 10 minutes of the session, the drivers would begin to find more time as the track was beginning to ramp up. With all drivers having a lap time on the board, Maserati's Jake Hughes would be fastest provisionally ahead of Mahindra's Edoardo Mortars. Half an hour of the session would remain.

The track would continue to improve as would the lap times with Jaguar's Nick Cassidy and Mexico City E-Prix winner Oliver Rowland having stints at the top of the time sheets.

At the halfway point, 20 minutes had passed and 20 minutes would remain in the opening free practice in Jeddah for round three of the 2024/25 season. Hughes would regain his place at the top of the time sheets and would be fastest overall with 1:16.627 being the lap time to beat.

Hughes would be fastest ahead of Nissan's Rowland and Porsche's Antonio Felix Da Costa that would be completing the top three. There would soon be a stint where a majority of drivers would enter the pit lane to review data and prepare for other plans to gather additional data in other areas.

Vergne would come close to Hughes' time as the multiple Formula E champion would be just over a tenth away from the top of the times. He would be shortly joined in the top three by his DS Penske teammate Maximilian Gunther.

There would be a change at the top with 15 minutes to go as Rowland would return to the top of the timing pages with reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein putting his Porsche up into second place. This was as Di Grassi leapt up into sixth.

With 10 minutes remaining, Rowland would still find himself top of the times ahead of Wehrlein and Hughes as the top three with Vergne and Envision Racing's Sebastian Buemi rounding off the top five.

Buemi would soon be dislodged from fifth place as Mahindra's Nyck De Vries would find himself in the top five by going fifth fastest.

There would be another change at the top but it would become a Nissan 1-2 with Norman Nato dislodging his teammate Rowland at the top of the times as the clock continued to tick down in FP1.

With just five minutes remaining, the Nissan 1-2 would remain in tact for Nissan but elsewhere in the top five, there would be the two Porsche cars of Antonio Felix Da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein in third and fourth with Andretti's Nico Mueller in fifth.

Soon enough Wehrlein would split the two Nissan cars to go second as once again the track was seeing big improvements made to personal best lap times but Nato's lap time remained strong at the top of the time sheet. 

Wehrlein would be bumped down to third though as British talent Dan Ticktum would go second for Cupra Kiro showing improvements were being made from drivers from all different teams up and down the grid.

Times would continue to improve and positions would be constantly changing and as the chequered flag flew from the race control tower, that signalled the end of FP1 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.

By the end of the session, it would be an ideal start to the weekend for Nissan as they would see their cars finishing 1-2 at the end of the 40 minutes. It would be the Mexico City E-Prix race winner Oliver Rowland, who would finish fastest overall.

Rowland would top the times from his French teammate Norman Nato in a 1-2 finish with Mahindra's Swiss driver Edoardo Mortara completing the top three at the end of the FP1 session.

NEOM McLaren's Sam Bird and Cupra Kiro's Dan Ticktum made it three Brits in the top five as they were fourth and fifth respectively, in the final FP1 order.

Reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein was sixth for Porsche ahead of the Maserati talent Stoffel Vandoorne, who was seventh. Wehrlein's Porsche teammate and championship leader Antonio Felix Da Costa was eighth.

Da Costa was eighth for Porsche with DS Penske's Maximilian Gunther in ninth and the Jaguar car of Mitch Evans completing the top 10 for the opening free practice in Jeddah.

With FP1 complete in Jeddah and Thursday's action finished around the three kilometre circuit, the attention turns to Friday where round three of the FIA Formula E World Championship is set to unfold.

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2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: Round 3 - Jeddah E-Prix free practice 1 result

1. Oliver Rowland (Great Britain, Nissan)
2. Norman Nato (France, Nissan)
3. Edoardo Mortara (Switzerland, Mahindra Racing)
4. Sam Bird (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
5. Dan Ticktum (Great Britain, Cupra Kiro)
6. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany, Porsche)
7. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, Maserati)
8. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Portugal, Porsche)
9. Maximilian Gunther (Germany, DS Penske)
10. Mitch Evans (New Zealand, Jaguar)
11. Nick Cassidy (New Zealand, Jaguar)
12. Nico Mueller (Switzerland, Andretti)
13. David Beckmann (Germany, Cupra Kiro)
14. Jake Dennis (Great Britain, Andretti)
15. Nyck De Vries (Netherlands, Mahindra Racing)
16. Jake Hughes (Great Britain, Maserati)
17. Robin Frijns (Netherlands, Envision Racing)
18. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, DS Penske)
19. Sebastian Buemi (Switzerland, Envision Racing)
20. Zane Maloney (Barbados, Lola Yamaha ABT)
21. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil, Lola Yamaha ABT)
22. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal