Nissan e.Dams’ Sebastien Buemi took FIA Formula E Championship’s pole in Berlin EPrix from HWA Racelab’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Audi’s Lucas di Grassi.
Group 1
Not many ventured out at the start of the first group in Formula E Berlin EPrix qualifying as all the drivers wanted to set their quick lap time as late as possible. This caught out DS Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer eventually in a crucial title battle.
The German was late in crossing the line as he ended up only fifth with a 1m12.568s lap, while teammate Jean-Eric Vergne (1m08.046s) was third as Audi’s Lucas di Grassi headed the group with a superb 1m07.926s lap.
Di Grassi was followed by BMW Andretti’s Antonio Felix da Costa (1m08.013s) with Vergne third, Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns (1m08.919s) fourth and Lotterer fifth.
Group 2
The second group didn’t change di Grassi’s position but his teammate Daniel Abt came close in second with a 1m07.953s lap as Mahindra Racing’s Jerome D’Ambrosio (1m08.065s) and Nissan e.Dams’ Oliver Rowland (1m08.119s) were fifth and sixth.
The two made it into Super Pole for now as they pushed out Frijns and Lotterer, who even dropped behind Envision Virgin’s Sam Bird (1m08.182s) in seventh and Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans (1m08.314s) in eighth.
Group 3
The third group changed the course of Super Pole standings with HWA Racelab’s Stoffel Vandoorne ending up the quickest with a 1m07.619s with Nissan e.Dams’ Sebastien Buemi (1m07.625s) in second and BMW Andretti’s Alexander Sims (1m07.728s) third.
This pushed Vergne and D’Ambrosio outside the Top 6 with Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein (1m08.086s) slotting in ninth while Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara (1m08.223s) 12th and Felipe Massa (1m108.348s) 14th – the latter brushing the walls on his quick lap.
Group 4
There was no change at the top after the fourth group but HWA Racelab’s Gary Paffett (1m07.877s) and Jaguar’s Alex Lynn (1m07.920s) made it into Super Pole with the duo finishing fourth and fifth, pushing out Abt and da Costa – the former is under investigation.
Behind, NIO’s Oliver Turvey (1m08.203s) was 14th with GEOX Dragon’s Maximilian Gunther (1m08.218s) 15th, while their teammates Tom Dillmann (1m08.263s) and Jose Maria Lopez (1m08.720s) ended up 17th and 20th respectively.
Super Pole
The final part of qualifying started with Audi’s di Grassi setting a 1m07.719s lap with Jaguar’s Lynn slotting in second with a 1m07.849s lap but he was pushed to third with HWA Racelab’s Paffett slotting in third then with a 1m07.783s lap.
It wasn’t a good lap from BMW Andretti’s Sims, who ended up only fourth with a 1m08.017s lap but Nissan e.Dams’ Buemi decimated the opponents with a 1m07.295s to take Formula E Berlin EPrix pole with HAW Racelab’s Vandoorne (1m07.693s) in second.
Position 1-22: Buemi, Vandoorne, di Grassi, Paffett, Lynn, Sims, Abt, da Costa, Vergne, D’Ambrosio, Wehrlein, Rowland, Bird, Turvey, Gunther Mortara, Dillmann, Evans, Massa, Lopez, Frijns, Lotterer.