Bird quickest in red-flagged São Paulo FP2

Sam Bird set the quickest time in the second free practice of the 2024 São Paulo E-Prix, which took place early on Saturday morning.

The Formula E veteran clocked the quickest lap of FP2 ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, Oliver Rowland and reigning World Champion Jake Dennis, who were all within two-tenths of Bird's 1:12.773 secs.

Bird's quickest lap was two-tenths of a second slower than Mitch Evans' leading time in first practice on Friday evening, although the Kiwi could only manage 22nd in what was a troubling session for him.

Pascal Wehrlein completed the top five, whilst current championship leader Nick Cassidy ended the session prior to qualifying in P12.

Trouble for Evans

The second practice session got underway at just 07:30 am local time in São Paulo, meaning the track and air temperatures were significantly lower than they will be come the race in the afternoon.

FP1's fastest driver and last season's São Paulo winner Mitch Evans encountered an issue in the opening minutes of the session, and was forced to crawl around the bulk of the lap to return to the pits.

Jaguar Team Principal revealed that a driveshaft issue was the cause of Evans' problem, although it was repaired in time for him to get back out onto the circuit for the closing minutes. It wasn't only Evans with issues, as Maximilian Günther was given a 20-place grid penalty following an overnight gearbox change.

Porsche powertrains looked strong in the second practice session, as halfway through Pascal Wehrlein topped the timesheet ahead of his teammate and Jake Dennis. Similarly to yesterday, Envision's Robin Frijns almost ended up in the wall at Turn 9 and appeared to be lacking confidence whilst braking.

With six minutes remaining, a red flag was required after Edoardo Mortara came to a halt on the exit of Turn 3. Just before the red flag, Sam Bird jumped to the top of the leaderboard.

The session did resume with just under one-minute remaining, leading to a flurry of action as all the drivers wanted to complete a practice start.