Diriyah E-Prix: Evans snatches top spot from Ticktum in FE FP3

Sam Bird kicked off the more representative times of the session with a 1m12.163s, but the pace quickly escalated as the drivers shook off the morning cobwebs and began their runs in earnest.

Friday's polesitter Sebastien Buemi then collected a 1m11.620s, which was quickly knocked off the top by the NIO 333 pairing of Sergio Sette Camara and Ticktum.

Antonio Felix da Costa, who was caught up in a lap 1 tangle with Mitch Evans and the Mahindras in the first race, displaced the NIO 333s from the top, before Bird migrated north once more with a 1m10.811s.

Evans pipped his Jaguar team-mate by half a tenth, but was then succeeded by Nissan's Sacha Fenestraz at the top of the timing boards by 0.014s.

McLaren's Jake Hughes then put his car on top with a 1m10.324s, and then bettered his lap by three tenths two laps later, but Buemi broke the 70s barrier to set a 1m09.897s, moving above the Briton.

Sette Camara produced a 1m09.758s to relegate the Envision driver down a position at the halfway mark of the session.

Despite a setup change that caused understeer into Turn 1, Buemi reckoned he would keep the tweaks as he claimed a 1m09.575s to return to the top, but was again displaced by a NIO 333 car as Ticktum went fastest by 0.3s.

Dan Ticktum, NIO 333 FE Team, NIO 333 ER9 (Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images)

The Briton's time continued to hold firm despite efforts from Norman Nato and Jean-Eric Vergne in the final few minutes, the latter 0.009s up on Ticktum in the opening pair of sectors, but losing nearly a tenth in the final sector to slot into second.

Evans then stole the show at the chequered flag, logging a 1m09.092s at the close of the session to go fastest ahead of Ticktum and Vergne.

Nato's time was good enough for fourth, 0.125s ahead of race one podium finisher Bird. The following cars were separated by mere fractions, with Rene Rast, Buemi, Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne all within half a tenth of Bird's fifth-placed time.

Andre Lotterer completed the top 10 ahead of Sette Camara, but both are under investigation for a technical infraction - as is Abt's Nico Muller.

Muller's replacement team-mate Kelvin van der Linde had a minor contretemps with Antonio Felix da Costa, as the two got too close in the series of sweeping corners at the back of the circuit - knocking off the South African's front wing endplate.

Van der Linde had earlier come to a stop at Turn 4 at the start of the session, but was able to reboot his Mahindra-powered car to carry on with his session.

Lucas di Grassi propped up the times after he made a rare mistake at Turn 18 to hit the barrier side on. Although he was able to escape with minimal damage, he did not return to the circuit after retreating to the pits.

Full FP3 results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	20	1'09.092			129.948
2	Dan Ticktum	NIO Formula E Team	21	1'09.241	0.149	0.149	129.668
3	Jean-Eric Vergne	Dragon Racing	18	1'09.315	0.223	0.074	129.530
4	Norman Nato	Nissan e.Dams	21	1'09.417	0.325	0.102	129.340
5	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	21	1'09.542	0.450	0.125	129.107
6	René Rast	McLaren	20	1'09.554	0.462	0.012	129.085
7	Sébastien Buemi	Virgin Racing	21	1'09.575	0.483	0.021	129.046
8	Jake Hughes	McLaren	20	1'09.586	0.494	0.011	129.025
9	Stoffel Vandoorne	Dragon Racing	20	1'09.587	0.495	0.001	129.024
10	Andre Lotterer	Andretti Autosport	17	1'09.645	0.553	0.058	128.916
11	Sergio Sette Camara	NIO Formula E Team	22	1'09.646	0.554	0.001	128.914
12	Antonio Felix da Costa	Porsche Team	22	1'09.723	0.631	0.077	128.772
13	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	21	1'09.728	0.636	0.005	128.763
14	Edoardo Mortara	Maserati Racing	19	1'09.786	0.694	0.058	128.656
15	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan e.Dams	20	1'09.803	0.711	0.017	128.624
16	Maximilian Gunther	Maserati Racing	21	1'09.853	0.761	0.050	128.532
17	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	18	1'09.873	0.781	0.020	128.495
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	17	1'09.958	0.866	0.085	128.339
19	Oliver Rowland	Mahindra Racing	18	1'10.009	0.917	0.051	128.246
20	Kelvin van der Linde	Team Abt	11	1'10.311	1.219	0.302	127.695
21	Nico Müller	Team Abt	18	1'10.628	1.536	0.317	127.122
22	Lucas di Grassi	Mahindra Racing	11	1'10.904	1.812	0.276	126.627
View full results