Max Gunther starts Saturday well with fastest time in FP3! Official F1 Journal Jeddah E-Prix free practice 3 report

Credit: Andrew Ferraro

After winning the round three Jeddah E-Prix in dramatic circumstances, Max Gunther of DS Penske started Saturday well as he was the fastest driver in free practice 3.

The German driver converted pole position to victory with a last lap overtake on Oliver Rowland in Friday's inaugural Jeddah E-Prix as Gunther picked up his first win for his new team at the newest venue in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

Gunther was fastest from the NEOM McLaren talent of Taylor Barnard who finished in second place, continuing his fine form from Friday's action into Saturday's. The top three would be the same as the Jeddah E-Prix top three but with Barnard in second instead of third and Rowland in third, instead of second.

Rowland leads the championship coming into the round four action after inheriting it with his points haul on Friday, in comparison to the previous championship leader Antonio Felix Da Costa

How the Formula E free practice 3 unfolded in Jeddah

Following a fantastic first day of racing action in Jeddah where drama boiled down to the final set of corners on the final lap of the E-Prix. However, as the sun began to rise on the Corniche Coast, it was time to do it all over again.

Maximilian Gunther made a dramatic last-lap overtake on Oliver Rowland to take victory in the first ever Jeddah E-Prix in the history of the Formula E World Championship to convert his pole position.

It would be race day once again on Saturday for round four of the 2024/25 Formula E season, with the day's action beginning with the weekend's free practice 3. 40 minutes of practice ahead of the day's later qualifying and E-Prix.

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and immediately there would be drivers keen to head out on circuit, and get a feel for the current track conditions ahead of the qualifying in a few hours later in the day.

Drivers would be laying down lap times early with a good start to proceedings for Envision Racing would see them go 1-2 with Robin Frijns going quickest. Frijns and Sebastian Buemi would both be ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, who set the early benchmark time.

As the drivers were starting to find pace, the order would be continuously changing with both Andretti cars moving into the top three. Jake Dennis would go fastest with a 1:18.568 with Nico Mueller going third quickest. The Andretti pair would be the Jaguar driver of Nick Cassidy.

The two Envision cars would then find improvements and go above the newly formed top three, but Buemi would be bumped to fourth and Frijns bumped to third as they were beaten by Norman Nato and Vandoorne. The pair were first and second respectively.

After the first 10 minutes of the session in top spot would be Nato with a 1:17.912 who would be ahead of Cassidy, Vandoorne, Frijns and Buemi as the top five with the drivers still looking for lap improvements and with 15 drivers of 22 having set a lap time.

Gunther who won the race on Friday, would lay down his first real representative time and would go fastest overall with a time better than Nato's and the DS Penske man was the driver to beat once again.

Buemi was continuing to show strong pace and after setting the session best sector time in all three sectors he would go faetest and would beat the time of Gunther. Buemi would go top by almost 1.5 seconds in a fantastic effort from the experienced Swiss driver.

A 1:15.941 would be the time to beat and Stoffel Vandoorne would beat it for Maserati but he might have lost some time to make his gap even greater at the top, as on the start/finish straight yellow flags were out.

Jake Hughes came to a stop on the start/finish straight with a suspected mechanical problem but he was able to restart the car and get it going again preventing the introduction of a red flag.

Cupra Kiro had a disappointing race after Dan Ticktum qualifying in the top eight was unable to convert it into points scoring. However, hi teammate David Beckmann would go quickest with a 1:15.839 - just five thousandths quicker than the previous time at the top by Vandoorne.

Beckmann's stint at the top would be short-lived, as on his next lap, Taylor Barnard would go quickest by half a second, which would be once again showing his raw speed and talent. He finished third in the round three E-Prix on Friday.

Barnard's teammate Sam Bird would make it up to second and would get within five thousandths of a second. This would be until Barnard extended his gap at the top by an additional two tenths. Norman Nato would elevate himself to third for Nissan. The top three would be full of Nissan manufactured cars.

Nato would once again improve but would stay third. This would not be good enough to upset the McLaren 1-2 but he would go to within three tenths of top man Barnard.

With just 10 minutes to go, the top two would no longer be all-McLaren as Max Gunther would go second for DS Penske and Mitch Evans would go third for Jaguar. Neither would be good enough to get ahead of Barnard. Second place Gunther would still be trailing Barnard by over a tenth.

Banrard's time of the 1:15.116 would still be the time at the top of the times as the likes of Jean-Eric Vergne were pushing hard on their lap times but having no prevail. Eventually it would though as Gunther would beat the time narrowly by 0.072!

The round three E-Prix winner would go to the top with a 1:15.044 as Da Costa would elevate himself into the top three ahead of Mitch Evans. This would be until the Nissan of Rowland moved himself up to third and within a tenth of Gunther.

Soon enough the time would be up and the chequered flag would be flying from the race control tower and that would signal the end for free practice in Jeddah for the 2024/25 Formula E season.

At the top of the times, and picking up from his great results yesterday, Max Gunther ended the session fastest with a time late on to secure top spot as he narrowly beat Taylor Barnard by seven hundredths of a second. Oliver Rowland completed the top three for Nisan.

The top three from Friday's E-Prix would also be the top three in free practice, with just the different positions for Barnard and Rowland, in difference to their finishing position in the first Jeddah E-Prix.

The two Porsche cars would end up in the top five as Antonio Felix Da Costa was fourth ahead of his teammate and the reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein. Mitch Evans for Jaguar would finish sixth ahead of the NEOM McLaren driver of Sam Bird in seventh.

Nissan's Norman Nato was eighth ahead of the Cupra Kiro of Dan Ticktum in ninth with 2021 ABB FIA Formula E World Champion Nyck De Vries rounding off the top 10.

Practice for the first ever weekend of Formula E action in Jeddah would be completed. Attention would build to qualifying which would set the grid for the second E-Prix in as many days for round four of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: Round 4 - Jeddah E-Prix free practice 3 result

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

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal