Alexander Sims secured his third consecutive ABB FIA Formula E pole position, securing the top spot in qualifying for the second leg of the Diriyah E-Prix.
After taking pole for Race 1, Sims once more emerged at the front of 24-car field. Completing his initial qualifying run in Group 2, the Briton advanced into the Super Pole shootout.
Holding fourth after the group qualifying stages, Sims was the third runner of Super Pole and beat the provisional pole lap time of Audi’s Lucas di Grassi, completing a 1:11.476s lap.
With Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa failing to beat the BMW driver, Sims emerged at the front of the field while Nissan e.dams’ Buemi was his nearest challenger, 0.220s off the pace.
Di Grassi emerged in third for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler while Mitch Evans secured a place on the second row of the grid for Jaguar Racing as the fourth-fastest driver.
A lock-up in the first sector in his final flying lap cost Jerome d’Ambrosio, with the Mahindra Racing driver taking fifth while da Costa was sixth for DS Techeetah, making a mistake on his 250kW run.
By taking pole position, Sims becomes the first driver in the history of Formula E to record three consecutive poles.
Outside of the top six positions, Race 1 winner Sam Bird secured seventh as the lead Envision Virgin Racing driver, missing out on a spot inside Super Pole following da Costa’s run.
Edoardo Mortara meanwhile delivered ROKiT Venturi Racing with eighth place. Maximilian Gunther followed the Swiss-Italian racer in ninth in the second BMW while Race 1 runner-up Andre Lotterer completed the top 10 for Porsche.
Limited running in FP3 impacted upon Jean-Eric Vergne’s qualifying, with the reigning champion taking 11th. He was followed by Race 1 podium finisher Stoffel Vandoorne who was the lead Mercedes EQ driver in 12th.
