Home Single-Seaters FormulaE Sam Bird grabs pole in New York

1-_O3I2749 — 2016/2017 FIA Formula E Championship. Round 9 - New York City ePrix, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Saturday 15 July 2017. Sam Bird (GBR), DS Virgin Racing, Spark-Citroen, Virgin DSV-02, leads Daniel Abt (GER), ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, Spark-Abt Sportsline, ABT Schaeffler FE02. Photo: Steven Tee/LAT/Formula E ref: Digital Image _O3I2749

Sam Bird grabs pole in New York

16/07/2017

Sam Bird claimed pole position ahead of the second e-Prix of New York. He would start ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Group 1 : Prost, Piquet, Bird, Duval, Frijns

Sam Bird (DS Virgin) easily put himself on top of the group with a 1’02’’2 laptime, more than half a second faster than Robin Frijns (Andretti). Nicolas Prost (Renault e.dams) only took third best time from Nelson Piquet Jr (Nextev Nio). Loïc Duval (Faraday Future Dragon Racing) could not shift to second gear in the corners and was 1’’3 off the pace.

Group 2: Da Costa, Rosenqvist, Abt, Turvey, d’Ambrosio

After a difficult qualifying session the day before, Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra) managed to top the standings from Bird. Oliver Turvey (Nextev Nio) put himself up to 3^rd just ahead of Daniel Abt (Abt Schaeffler). Jérôme D’Ambrosio (Faraday Future Dragon Racing) couldn’t beat Frijns and Antonio Felix Da Costa (Andretti) was 9^th.

Group 3: Gasly, di Grassi, Evans, Vergne, Sarrazin

The surprise came from Pierre Gasly (Renault e.dams) who set the provisional fastest time from Rosenqvist. Jean-Eric Vergne (Techeetah) got himself up to 3^rd place and were the only two of the group able to get to provisional superpole. Lucas di Grassi (Abt Schaeffler) was only 7^th, Stéphane Sarrazin (Techeetah) was 9th ahead of Mitch Evans (Jaguar).

Group 4: Dillmann, Engel, Heidfeld, Lynn, Carroll

Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra) was the only driver of the group to get himself up to the top 5. Maro Engel (Venturi) was just on P6. Tom Dillmann (Venturi) was P10 and Adam Caroll (Jaguar) was P20. Alex Lynn (DS Virgin) was not able to repeat his performance of the day before, qualified 17^th.

Superpole: Heidfeld, Bird, Vergne, Rosenqvist, Gasly

The first car to head out was Nick Heidfeld on a 1:03.2. Sam Bird improved the time by almost one second. Jean-Eric Vergne was 0.259 away from his former teammate best time. Felix Rosenqvist was only 0.037s away from Bird, pushing Vergne back to the second row. Pierre Gasly made a slight mistake in his fastest lap and had to settle for P4.

Sam Bird took pole position for the second race of the week-end ahead of Rosenqvist and Vergne. Gasly, Heidfeld, Engel, Turvey, Abt, Di Grassi and Dillmann completed the top 10.