Dragon capitalise on rival errors to lock out front row

Jerome D’Ambrosio took his first Formula E pole position with a time of 1:15.498 ahead of team mate Loic Duval. The two leaders of the driver’s championship Lucas di Grassi and Sebastian Buemi will start 4th and 5th respectively after they made errors during their hot laps in the Super Pole shoot-out, despite leading the way in the group stages.

Di Grassi lost half a second in the first sector through locking up into the first chicane and hitting the kerbs too hard at the second chicane, and then didn’t push for the rest of the lap. Buemi lost a quarter of a second before locking up and running straight on into the hairpin. This meant they were unable to challenge the two Dragon cars and Sam Bird, who was surprised to be in the top 3 after DS Virgin struggled for consistent pace during practice.

Nico Prost was 6th fastest ahead of Daniel Abt. Antonio Felix da Costa and Bruno Senna start side by side on the grid in 8th and 9th. Both looked to have top 5 pace in the first sector, but both lost time around the rest of the lap. Oliver Turvey was 10th with Robin Frijns between himself and team mate Nelson Piquet.

Stephane Sarrazin was 13th ahead of Nathanael Berthon and Simona de Silvestro, whose hot lap was interupted by a yellow flag for Jacques Villeneuve who crashed at turn 17. He starts last.

Oliver Rowland was 16th in his first Formula E qualifying, having locked the rears on the way into the turns 16/17/18 chicane.

Jean-Eric Vergne did not do a warm up lap and went straight for his 200kW lap, on which he lost the rear on the way into turn 5 and cut the second part of the chicane, meaning his lap did not count. He then nudged the back of Nathanael Berthon’s car who was on his way back to the pits as the Frenchman was moving slowly on the racing line. As a result, Vergne starts 17th.

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