FE added two ‘E-Prix Exercises’ for the gathering at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in a bid to fully test the systems needed for the sporting rule change for 2019/20 that requires each car to lose a set amount of energy after race interruptions.

The change have been made to try and guarantee more race finishes such as Audi driver Lucas di Grassi’s last-gasp win in Mexico City last season, as well as reducing the number of flat-out events that lead to high levels of contact between cars.

While there were no points on offer for the two ‘races’ at Valencia – which were headed by Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne and Nissan's Sebastien Buemi respectively – the latter run featured a noticeable amount of contact.

Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein finished minus a wheel cover, Jaguar driver Evans briefly tagged the back of Dragon driver Nico Muller as the pack converged late-on and Felipe Massa nosed into the wall at the chicane while battling Oliver Rowland for the lead.

“It got a bit too serious out there,” said Evans. “Obviously it we’re all a bit too competitive – I feel like we’re all racing for points for some reason.

“For the FIA, they needed to make sure their systems are working right, but to be doing these races in testing is just crazy because we get carried away.

“I think everyone had damage after the [second] race. From that side it’s just silly because they bunch us up and obviously we’re sportsmen, we’re super-competitive, so of course we want to get on top of each other and test out what we’ve got. And that obviously leads to potential contact, which happened a few times.

“But hopefully the FIA have got enough data and everything so we can [avoid future simulation races in testing]. The next proper racing is going to be the real race.

“Hopefully in the future we don’t have many of these simulations. I think it’s just a recipe for like unnecessary damage and that sort of thing.”