Robin Frijns takes second career pole as ABT lock out the front row in wet qualifying for the Berlin ePrix.
After a damp practice session this morning, the rain continued to fall at the Berlin Tempelhof Circuit before qualifying, allowing for some potential surprises in the session.
In Group A qualifying, times were close amongst the top three, separated by just four-hundredths of a second. Jean-Eric Vergne was the fastest in the group, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, Nico Muller and Jake Dennis.
Nissan struggled for pace in the session, both cars being two seconds off the pace.
During Group B qualifying, the rain began to fall again, complicating conditions for the drivers. Lap times were roughly three seconds slower than those posted in qualifying yesterday, with the conditions being challenging to manage.
Both Envision cars progressed to the duels, with supplier team Jaguar also having a car progress with Mitch Evans making it through.
ABT Cupra got both of their cars through to the duels, despite being by far the slowest on the grid.
Dan Ticktum would have hoped to progress into the duels to mitigate the impact of his five-place grid penalty. The NIO 333 driver was only able to come seventh in the group.
Vergne beat Dennis in the quarter-finals by half a second to progress to the semi-finals. His opponent Muller also had a strong quarter-finals performance and bettered championship leader Wehrlein by three-tenths.
Times were closer in the other quarter-finals duels, both battles being separated by less than a tenth. Frijns beat yesterday’s race winner Evans to progress to the semis as the ABT package continued to shine.
Although Cassidy was faster than teammate Buemi in his duel, the Kiwi lost his lap time for improper energy usage allowing his teammate to progress.
In the semi-finals, the ABT drivers locked out the front row in a stunning qualifying for the team in their home race. The team’s return to Formula E has been difficult, with multiple issues and a lack of pace in their package.
Frijns beat his teammate Muller by over half a session to take the second pole position of his career and the first points for his team.
The Berlin ePrix begins at 15:03 local time.
