Hughes tercepat dalam latihan basah di Jakarta

Sirkuit Jakarta E-Prix yang basah mengakibatkan perubahan susunan pembalap pada latihan bebas kedua.

Setelah badai melanda kota itu sepanjang malam, hujan terus turun menjelang sesi latihan bebas kedua. Lintasan yang basah menghadirkan tantangan baru bagi para pembalap, setelah sirkuit itu sangat berdebu kemarin.

Jake Hughes tampil cepat di lintasan basah, memuncaki daftar waktu untuk Maserati MSG Racing. Pascal Wehrlein – mantan pemenang balapan di sini – mengamankan posisi kedua untuk TAG Heuer Porsche, dengan pendatang baru NEOM McLaren Taylor Barnard di posisi ketiga. Edoardo Mortara kembali tampil cepat untuk Mahindra Racing di posisi keempat, dengan Maserati lainnya dari Stoffel Vandoorne melengkapi lima besar.

Nick Cassidy memiliki waktu terbatas untuk Jaguar TCS Racing, setelah masalah suspensi yang mungkin mengganggu sesinya – sesuatu yang tampak sangat mirip dengan masalah yang dialami Robin Frijns dari Envision Racing kemarin.

Sesi basah dimulai pukul 08:00 waktu setempat, tepat saat hujan berhenti turun. Menemukan pegangan terbukti sulit, dengan beberapa kali nyaris mengenai pembatas atau kontak kecil dengan pembatas pada tahap awal.

After an incident in Free Practice 1 yesterday, Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns was back out on track and reporting no issues with his car. The Dutch driver had a problem with his suspension yesterday, which failed and sent him sliding into the wall and a barrier at Turn 7. He was fine, but it remained a mystery for the team.

However, minutes into FP2 Nick Cassidy’s race engineer Phil Ingram – who is returning to the role after Cassidy’s success in Shanghai – radioed to the Kiwi about a potential problem. “Ok Nick, could you just give us as much information as you can about what happened? It looked very similar to what happened to Robin [Frijns] yesterday,” he said.

It appears that the front-right suspension failed, with both teams sharing the Jaguar TCS Racing powertrain. For Cassidy, he was able to return to the garage and head back out after the team worked on his all-electric machine.

As the session drew to a close, there was plenty of traffic as all 22 drivers tried to secure final laps before qualifying.