Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans took pole position for Race 1 of the Portland E-Prix double-header after defeating Andretti’s Norman Nato in the final head-to-head duel on Saturday.
Evans scraped through his group but was consistently quick throughout the duels and his lap-record effort in the final of 1:08.820 granted him pole position for Race 1. Nato, who qualified second with a 1:09.016s lap time will start from 12th due to a 10-place grid penalty.
McLaren’s Jake Hughes was third and will start on the front row thanks to Nato’s penalty. Robin Frijns will start from third after setting the fourth fastest time in the Semi-Finals with Porsches Antonio Felix Da Costa set to start Race 1 from fourth.
ERT’s Dan Ticktum and Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara will line up on the third row, with ABT’s Nico Müller and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein set to start on Row 4, although the German failed to get out of his group.
Envision’s Sebastien Buemei will line up ninth with Andretti’s Jake Dennis securing 10th on Race 1’s Grid.
It was a tale of two halves for Jaguar as points leader Nick Cassidy failed to advance from his group and will start Saturday’s Race 1 from 11th on the grid.
HOW QUALIFYING UNFOLDED
GROUPS:
Championship leader Nick Cassidy partook in Group A and he needed to be part of the four drivers advancing to the duels to keep his title bid running smoothly. The same could be said for his Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans, but running wide onto the grass through the long right-hander compromised his efforts. Evans found himself provisionally first with a minute remaining in Group A, recovering well from his off as Cassidy had his final lap to ensure he advanced, but alas, he was a major scalp and failed to advance.
Hughes advanced as the quickest driver [1:09.775], ahead of Evans [1:09.777], Sette Camara [1:09.849] and Di Grassi [1:09.942] with Cassidy slipping to eighth. The championship leader was joined by some other major exiting drivers in DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Maserati’s Max Günther, who finished dead last. Sette Camara’s advancing was short-lived however, as he had several laps deleted, promoting Mortara in his place.
Cassidy was given respite as his closest challenger in the title race, Porsche’s Wehrlein, failed to advance in Group B. ERT’s Ticktum advanced to the duels for the first time in Season 10 as the fastest driver [1:09.766s], ahead of Da Costa [1:09.779], Frijns [1:09.849] and Nato [1:09.878]. Wehrlein missed out by a couple of hundredths of a second as just over four tenth covered the entirety of Group B.
Wehrlein was joined by Jake Dennis in Group B elimination. Rookie Caio Collet impressively out-qualified his Nissan team-mate Sacha Fenestraz on debut in place of the ill Oliver Rowland.
DUELS:
The first Quarter-Final duel pitted ABT’s Di Grassi against Jaguar’s Evans and the fan predictor vote favoured the latter by a whopping 95%. Evans delivered on that promise, out-qualifying Di Grassi by 0.383s.
Next up was Mortara versus Hughes. The McLaren driver was the fastest in Group A and he backed that up by beating Mortara, who accepted defeat by running off of the road at Turn 11.
The third Quarter-Final saw Frijns go up against Da Costa with the Envision driver partaking in his first duel since Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Frijns had no trouble back in the Quarter-Final fold however as Da Costa ran wide in the final sector to hand the Envision driver a Semi-Final berth.
The fourth and final Quarter-Final saw Nato take on Ticktum, the quickest driver from Group B. Nato had Ticktum’s number, posting a lap 0.083s faster than the ERT driver to advance.
SEMI-FINALS:
Evans took on Hughes in the first Semi-Final in a Jaguar versus Nissan powertrain contest. Hughes was no match for Evans however and the Jaguar driver out-qualified his McLaren competitor by 0.261s to advance to the final.
The contest to see who would face Evans in the Final was between Nato and Frijns. A big snap of oversteer into the opening chicane put Frijns on the back foot and he was unable to recover, paving the way for Nato to advance.
FINAL:
Nato and Evans guaranteed themselves a front-row slot, but the Final would determine pole position for Saturday’s Race 1 in Portland. Evans was 0.117s down in Sector 1, but he turned that around to an advantage of 0.196s by the time he crossed the Start/Finish line to take his second pole position of the year and pick up three points in the championship.
