Pascal Wehrlein stamped his authority on the final practice running in China, steering his TAG Heuer Porsche machine to the top of the timesheets in a highly competitive Free Practice 2 at the 2026 Sanya E-Prix. Flexing clean execution right as the clock ran out, the German veteran clocked a blistering benchmark of 1:05.095 to edge out his nearest rival by a razor-thin margin.
The 40-minute session saw drivers push their machinery significantly harder than the previous afternoon, leading to plenty of action across the dusty temporary layout. Dan Ticktum found himself fighting the limits of the circuit early on, missing his braking point and sliding his Cupra Kiro car into the Turn 9 run-off area on two separate occasions.
Meanwhile, a tense moment unfolded out on track when former champion Oliver Rowland lost the rear of his Nissan, spinning across the tarmac and nearly collecting a slow-moving António Félix da Costa. Mahindra Racing continued to turn heads with their impressive single-lap pace.
Edoardo Mortara commanded the top spot for a large portion of the second half, showing supreme comfort on the coastal street tracks, while his teammate Nyck de Vries briefly held the absolute fastest lap. However, Wehrlein delivered a clinical, error-free flyer in the dying moments of the session to steal the headlines from Mahindra by just 0.016 seconds.
Season 9 champion Jake Dennis secured third for Andretti, while Ticktum recovered from his early lock-ups to finish fifth, highlighting an intensely close field where the top five cars were blanketed by just three-tenths of a second.