Oliver Rowland wrestled his red Mahindra to a stunning Pole on the wet streets of Seoul. The rain caught the drivers in Group B off-guard – but it also gave them an unexpected advantage in the Duels.
The Duels Final ahead of Round 15 of the Seoul E-Prix came down to a rain-soaked battle between two future teammates: Oliver Rowland vs Lucas Di Grassi, together at Mahindra starting next season.
After making his debut in the Semi-Finals, the Brit stormed to a stunning pole position, showing exceptional control through sector two, where he went over half a second faster than the Venturi driver.
On the second row of the grid, Mitch Evans will be starting the first race of the weekend in P3, just ahead of Pascal Wehrlein who lost out to Rowland in the Semi-Final.
The Quarter-Final saw all the drivers who qualified in the top 4 for Group A eliminated. Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara, who will start 6th on the grid ahead of his championship rival Stoffel Vandoorne, noted that they did not get any practice in wet conditions ahead of the Duels, unlike the drivers in Group B.
The struggle was evident as after a very decent run through the first stage of Qualifying, Sergio Sette Camara slid off into the barriers at Turn 13, and ended the session without setting a time.
Andretti’s Jake Dennis was the best out of all the Group A drivers, managing to qualify 5th on the grid despite losing the Duel against Di Grassi.
Group B Qualifying was not, however, without drama: a late investigation caused some delays as Evans’ time was deleted due to allegedly not respecting the minimum pit stop time.
Jean-Eric Vergne, who had temporarily gained a spot in the top four due to the active investigation, saw his final chance to make it to the Duels – and keep his hopes to win the championship alive – vanish before his eyes when the Stewards reinstated Evans’ lap time.
The DS Techeetah’s driver will start the race in P9 ahead of Sébastien Buemi and Norman Nato, with teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa in P12.
Nyck de Vries only managed a disappointing 15th place after struggling for grip in the rain. Dan Ticktum and Antonio Giovinazzi will both start ahead of him on the 7th row on the grid.
Pole-sitter’s teammate Alexander Sims caused a Red Flag during the Group B qualifying, where he crashed after sustaining damage to his front suspensions. He will not however start last, as Andretti’s Oliver Askew had all of his lap times deleted due to not respecting the minimum pit stop time.
Round 15 of the Seoul E-Prix will start at 4PM local time, 8AM BST.
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