The all-new FIA Formula E Championship has kicked off in Beijing with the first two official practice sessions taking place on streets around the famous “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium.

Audi sportscar racer Lucas Di Grassi took the honors of being fastest in the first ever session while Bruno Senna topped the second practice session which ended early after local Chinese star Ho-Pin Tung crashed at brought out the red flag at the end of the session.

There is lots of experience on the FIA Formula E grid – combined, the Formula E drivers have taken part in 776 Formula 1 Grand Prix. That’s the equivalent of almost 40 seasons of the present 20-race calendar!

From those races, the drivers have scored 661.5 points, a tally that would put them 11th in the all-time point scoring table, just behind legendary four-time champion – and Formula E team co-owner – Alain Prost.

Only Jarno Trulli managed to score a win. But between them the Formula E field mustered five pole positions and four fastest laps
The experience extends well beyond F1. There are a combined 51 starts at the Le Mans 24 endurance race, and 12 starts at the legendary Indianapolis 500.

But it was in the junior categories where our drivers really enjoyed stunning success. On the CVs of the Formula E drivers there are a whopping 40 British F3 wins, 18 German F3 wins and five F3 Euroseries wins. There are also two winners of the prestigious Macau Grand Prix and one F3 Masters winner. In total, six of our drivers have F3 titles to their name.

There are also 26 GP2 wins, seven Formula Renault 3.5 titles (plus 14 in its previous guise of World Series by Nissan) and nine F3000 wins. There are also two championship winners at that level.

Our drivers have also racked up championship wins in the Le Mans Series and Indy Lights and multiple race wins in GP3, A1GP and Superleague Formula.

There are of course two American teams competing in the championship with Andretti Racing (Frank Montagny and Charles Pic) and Dragon Racing (Oriol Servia and Jerome d’Ambrosio) doing battle.

Sportscar fans will be familiar with Lucas di Grassi, Sebastien Buemi, Nicolas Prost, Stephane Sarrzin, Nick Heidfeld and Bruno Senna from the FIA WEC and Ho-Pin Tung and Katherine Legge from the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. IndyCar regulars Takuma Sato and Oriol Servia are also on the grid.

Michelin Alley and AutoRacingLive.com will bring you all the latest updates from the historic weekend in China. To follow the race live, check out //fia-e.autoracinglive.com/1-beijing-round1

PRACTICE 1
Pos : Driver : Team : Time : Gap
1. Lucas di Grassi Abt 1m41.937s
2. Sebastien Buemi e.dams 1m42.510s +0.573s
3. Sam Bird Virgin 1m42.902s +0.965s
4. Nicolas Prost e.dams 1m42.961s +1.024s
5. Karun Chandhok Mahindra 1m43.220s +1.283s
6. Jerome d’Ambrosio Dragon 1m43.539s +1.602s
7. Daniel Abt Abt 1m43.626s +1.689s
8. Franck Montagny Andretti 1m44.102s +2.165s
9. Charles Pic Andretti 1m44.182s +2.245s
10. Jarno Trulli Trulli 1m44.520s +2.583s
11. Stephane Sarrazin Venturi 1m44.522s +2.585s
12. Ho-Pin Tung China 1m44.839s +2.902s
13. Nelson Piquet China 1m45.146s +3.209s
14. Takuma Sato Aguri 1m45.450s +3.513s
15. Bruno Senna Mahindra 1m45.469s +3.532s
16. Jaime Alguersuari Virgin 1m45.982s +4.045s
17. Nick Heidfeld Venturi 1m46.579s +4.642s
18. Michela Cerruti Trulli 1m46.778s +4.841s
19. Oriol Servia Dragon 1m50.872s +8.935s
20. Katherine Legge Aguri 1m51.850s +9.913s