Nico Prost topped the first free practice timesheets at the Punta del Este ePrix with a time of 1min 16.696secs behind the wheel of the e.dams-Renault car.
e.dams have so far this season shown themselves to be one of the quicker cars over a lap and Sebastien Buemi’s fourth, with a lap of 1min 17.192secs, further indicated their speed.
Table topping Audi Sport ABT were the closest challengers, Daniel Abt took second in the practice session with a lap of 1min 16.828secs.
In third, the ever improving Dragon Racing continued where they left off at the Putrajaya ePrix, with Jerome D’Ambrosio’s lap of 1min 16.959secs the only other time to fall below 1min 17secs.
It was a relatively straight forward practice session with the only disruption proving to be Trulli GP’s Michela Cerutti, who hit the wall at the exit of the first chicane with 25 minutes to go.
A three minute pause under the red flag, while her Renault-Spark was recovered, did little to deter the onrushing Venturi GP duo. Halfway through the session, Nick Heidfeld and Stephane Sarrazin diced for the top spot in the timesheets, before Sarrazin took fifth at the flag with a time of 1min 17.222secs. He was eight places higher than his team-mate come the end of the session.
Sixth was impressive debutant Jean-Eric Vergne. Clearly adapting to the new series in the Andretti Formula E car, progress was slow, before his time of 1min 17.395secs demonstrated a driver becoming more at ease in the car.
Following him across the line, Jarno Trulli proved there’s more to come from the struggling Trulli team as he took seventh with his time of 1min 17.581secs.
Fellow ex-F1 racer Bruno Senna was next on the timesheets and the Mahindra Racing driver registered a best lap of 1min 17.628secs, while ninth saw the continuing Matthew Brabham, his place secured by a time of 1min 17.675secs in the Andretti car.
Rounding off the top ten was the second Mahindra car of Karun Chandhok, a 1min 17.99secs lap enough to push him ahead of rivals such as Oriol Servia, Antonio Felix da Costa and Nick Heidfeld.
