Reigning Formula 2 World Champion and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team reserve driver Felipe Drugovich ended Monday as the fastest driver at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, in the first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Rookie Test since 2020.
It was certainly an exciting day of action in the German capital, as twenty-two Formula E rookies got to try a Gen3 car for the very first time. Some of the big names taking part in the test were Drugovich, Scuderia Ferrari reserve driver Robert Shwartzman, ex-F1 drivers Jack Aitken and Daniil Kvyat, and reigning DTM Champion Sheldon van der Linde.
The Rookie Test was split into two three-hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with Drugovich’s rapid lap having came later on in the day.
Morning Session
Unlike Sunday morning at the Berlin E-Prix, Monday morning was beautifully dry for the rookies, meaning they had ideal conditions to get up to speed. It was van der Linde who topped the morning session whilst driving for Jaguar TCS Racing, with the South African being the brother of Kelvin van der Linde, who replaced Robin Frijns for a few rounds this season at the ABT CUPRA Formula E Team.
Van der Linde’s pacesetting time in the morning session was a 1:05.814, just half a second off the best time from the Berlin double-header. 1,035 laps were completed in the morning between all the drivers, with van der Linde’s sixty-seven having been the most by one driver. Former F2 driver Luca Ghiotto was second for the Nissan Formula E Team, with current F2 driver and Mahindra Racing reserve Jehan Daruvala completing the top three.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session was even quicker than the morning session, with Drugovich having ended the day on top for Maserati MSG Racing after posting a 1:05.509. The Brazilian’s lap was remarkably quicker than Sébastian Buemi‘s pole position lap from Saturday, whilst it was only two-tenths slower than the outright fastest lap from last weekend.
Van der Linde was unable to go as quick as he did in the morning session after crashing during the session, with the South African having damaged the front of his Jaguar I-TYPE 6. Behind Drugovich in second was reigning Formula 3 World Champion and current F2 driver Victor Martins, who was completing the test for Nissan. Rounding off the top three was FIA Rookie of the Year and another current F2 driver Zane Maloney, who was driving for Avalanche Andretti Formula E.
