Nick Cassidy’s World Championship hopes received a huge boost by taking pole position for Race 2 of the London E-Prix.
The Jaguar man, having been angered by an earlier brake by wire issue that threatened his participation in qualifying, stormed through each round and defeated Maserati’s Max Günther in the final, the German in a real position to play a huge role in the outcome of the title.
The second Jaguar and fellow title contender Mitch Evans qualified third, keeping his chances firmly high, with Pascal Wehrlein placing his Porsche just behind in fourth.
Robin Frijns, despite nursing an injured hand from his crash with Jake Dennis in Race 1, qualified fifth, with Jean-Éric Vergne sixth. Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, in his final race with the DS Penske team, was seventh, with home favourite Sam Bird eighth.
Oliver Rowland narrowly missed out on the head-to-heads with ninth, with Antonio Felix da Costa 10th, the Porsche team hoping he can make his way through the field come the race in order to help Wehrlein’s charge.
HOW QUALIFYING UNFOLDED
GROUPS
After the disastrous FP3, Cassidy set his stall out early in Group A, setting some neat and quick laps before pushing harder as the clock began to tick down, setting a 1:10.323. Wehrlein could only manage a tenth slower, with Bird and Frijns following them into the duel stages. Oliver Rowland, Sebastien Buemi – who shone in Race 1 – and Jake Dennis were the big casualties.
In Group B, da Costa and Vandoorne were the early pace-setters, with Evans seemingly suffering from a steering issue. With just over two minutes to go, Evans went quickest with a 1:10.509, but was still vulnerable to losing out. Günther bettered it by a tenth of a second. Both Penskes made it through, both a tenth quicker than da Costa, who could not better his time enough to make it through.
DUELS
The first head-to-head would pit Wehrlein against Bird, the McLaren took a 1:10.598, but Wehrlein was too strong and blitzed into the semi-final stage by nearly four tenths of a second.
Frijns-Cassidy would see both drivers send it, leaving no inch. Cassidy’s lap was on the scrappy side, bouncing over the kerbs and sliding his way through the later stages of the lap, brushing the wall just before the re-entry into the indoor section, but with ultimately see-off Frijns with a lap of 1:10.212, a tenth quicker.
Evans would attempt to make it three title contenders from three to make it to the semi duels, but would have to defeat Vandoorne, who clocked-in a 1:10.434, but the Jaguar was too quick, coming through with a lap two tenths up on the Penske.
The final duel would see Günther against Vergne, an even match given the Maserati’s pace across the weekend and the Frenchman’s nous over a single lap, but it would be the German who went faster, but by only seven hundredths of a second with a 1:10.281.
SEMI-FINALS
The first semi would provide the ultimate nerve-jangling scenario, with Wehrlein against Cassidy. If the tension wasn’t high enough, Cassidy was given a warning over team radio regarding the brake by wire issue that plagued his FP3 in the morning. With a tenth of a second’s advantage, Cassidy just missed the apex at T16 but the Kiwi would just manage to scrape through to the final, pipping the Porsche by just under two tenths with a 1:10.263.
With Evans looking to make it a guaranteed Jaguar front-row, Günther looked keen to spoil the party and by the early part of the lap, the Maserati was already over two tenths up on Evans, but in the mid-section, he would gain, closing the gap to less than a tenth, but Günther would hold-on to the ascendency, putting himself in the final with a 1:10.232.
FINAL
Günther was now already in the position of being a potential king-maker given a guaranteed front-row start, but with no pressure on him, all eyes would be on Cassidy to see whether he could take pole and gain a crucial three points for the championship with the race ahead. Günther pushed Cassidy all the way but would ultimately lose-out by just a tenth, with Cassidy taking pole with a 1:09.871.
