Sebastien Buemi sets the pace in the final practice session ahead of the London ePrix

Renault e.Dams driver Sebastien Buemi topped the final practice session of the London ePrix ahead of Daniel Abt and his team mate Nico Prost

Daniel Abt briefly led the session twenty minutes in, but was running a different program to the two eDAMS cars. Buemi's second run saw him drop to a 1:23.171 in the closing stages of the session, which is eight tenths of a second quicker than Stephane Sarrazin's pole time from the second Battersea race this time last year.

Abt finished the session second ahead of Prost, split by a little over a hundredth of a second. A further tenth back was Loic Duval. Championship contender Lucas di Grassi struggled early on in the session, with his first full power lap being over a second slower than Buemi's.

On his final run at the end of the session he had to find his way through traffic, including passing Nick Heidfeld's Mahindra into Turn 14. DS Virgin Racing driver Jean-Eric Vergne improved from this morning to sixth place, but team mate Sam Bird was forced into a car change after he tapped the wall on the exit of Turn 3. He finished the session in eleventh place.

NEXTEV continued to show strong pace, with Nelson Piquet seventh, just seven tenths away from Buemi, despite an early off-track excursion at the Turn 4/5 chicane. Team mate Oliver Turvey was in ninth place, with Stephane Sarrazin splitting the pai in eighth place and Bruno Senna completed the top 10 finishers of the session.

Frijns was twelfth ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Jerome D'Ambrosio who damaged his rear suspension towards the end of the session after making contact with the wall. Antonio Felix da Costa was ahead of Mike Conway. Simona de Silvestro also made slight contact with the wall but was able to continue in seventeenth. Ma Qing Hua was the slowest car in the session.

Here are the qualifying groups for Saturday's London ePrix at Battersea Park:

Group 1:

• Nicolas Prost – Renault eDams
• Robin Frijns – Amlin Andretti
• Jean-Eric Vergne – DS Virgin Racing
• Ma Qing Hua – Team Aguri

Group 2:

• Bruno Senna – Mahindra Racing
• Oliver Turvey – NextEV TCR
• Simona de Silvestro – Amlin Andretti
• Stephane Sarrazin – Venturi

Group 3:

• Sebastien Buemi – Renault eDams
• Loic Duval – Dragon Racing
• Lucas di Grassi – Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport
• Antonio Felix da Costa – Team Aguri
• Jerome D'Ambrosio – Dragon Racing

Group 4:

• Nelson Piquet – NextEV TCR
• Daniel Abt – Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport
• Nick Heidfeld – Mahindra Racing
• Sam Bird – DS Virgin Racing
• Mike Conway – Venturi

Driving for Pleasure will be producing reports on every session at the London ePrix at Battersea Park circuit this weekend.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa