Mexican pilot Esteban Gutiérrez finally raced with the Techeetah car in Formula E, in the first two practices leading up to the ePrix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, but despite the warm welcome from the people, he paid the price of adaptation, and obtained a best result of 13th place in the second training session.
The regiomontano, who makes his debut this weekend in the electric category, debuted the car on track with the second-to-last place in the first practice, with a best time of 1:04.335 minutes, but a little later he seemed to adapt to the car and placed 13th, with a time of 1:03.055, although his teammate, the Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne, finished fourth and third, respectively.
The fight for the pole position and the victory in the Mexico City ePrix seems to be a matter of a few. The leader of the category, the Swiss Sébastien Buemi (Renault), arrived from Monza this morning and was first in both practices, with a time of 1:02.222 in the first session, and 1:03.164 in the second session, followed by the Frenchman Loïc Duval (Dragon) in the morning, and the Brazilian Lucas di Grassi (Abt) a little later.
The Belgian Jérome D'Ambrosio (Dragon), winner at Hermanos Rodríguez last year, was third in the initial practice, but his place on the podium in the second session went to Vergne (Techeetah), after finishing fourth earlier.
Compared to last year, the times dropped considerably, in the first practice of 2016, Buemi had a time of 1:03.995 minutes, which now dropped to 1:02.222, mainly because the chicane on the first straight disappeared for this edition; in the second session, last year the Swiss driver recorded 1:03.341, and this time it was 1:03.055.
There were some accidents on the track, from the British Sam Bird and his teammate at Virgin Racing, the Argentine José María López, both behind the Foro Sol, as well as from the British Adam Carroll (Jaguar), Duval, and the German Daniel Abt, although the most spectacular one was from the South American, who lost the right front tire.