His championship title campaign is far from over, after Stoffel Vandoorne seized the Julius Baer Pole Position for the second race of the London E-Prix double-header.
Mercedes EQ have endured a difficult few rounds, but this Qualifying session saw them claim two of the top four spots. Meanwhile, following his disqualification yesterday, Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland will line up on the front row ahead of Mahindra’s Alex Lynn
Changeable weather conditions dictated much of the Qualifying performance across the grid. A dry track saw Nyck de Vries seize the window of opportunity in Group 1 to go quickest with a 1:20.511, which proved to be enough to hang on to a top six spot.
As the rain begins to fall, Group 2 swiftly got underway with drivers out of the blocks quickly to set their laps. Vandoorne went three tenths up on his teammate in the first sector. However, with increasingly slippery conditions most drivers lost around half a second in the middle sector alone, but the Belgian driver managed to usurp de Vries by 0.052s.
Yet it was Group 3 that was the place to be due to the rain easing slightly. Lynn put in a storming 1:20.319 to top Group Qualifying at his home race, narrowly beating out Jaguar’s Mitch Evans by 0.002s.
The improved conditions saw four of the drivers in Group 3 make the Super Pole shootout, with the Mercedes EQ pair joined by Lynn, Evans, Rowland and BMW i Andretti’s Maximilian Guenther.
Bizarrely Guenther, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi and Rene Rast, Frijns, de Vries and Edoardo Mortara were all under investigation for driving too slowly on their in laps. However, this did not impact their positions on the grid and the six drivers were fined €1000 as a result.
Spots of rain continued into Super Pole and it was de Vries who initially led the way with a 1:20.353. Rowland then snatched provisional pole away with a 1:20.222.
Nevertheless, it was Vandoorne who proved to be the much needed man of the hour for Mercedes EQ, going three tenths clear in Sector 1 alone to vault himself to the top of the timing sheets.
Neither Lynn nor Evans could beat out Vandoorne’s time, which has seen him take his second pole position of the season. He will be joined on the front row by Rowland.
Lynn start’s his home race from third, with de Vries lining up alongside him. Evans narrowly managed to edge out Guenther and will start from fifth, clocking in the fastest final sector to recover from going in too deep at Turn 2.
Pascal Wehrlein missed out on Super Pole and will line up in seventh, with Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns for company on the fourth row. Another top 10 Qualifying session sees Sergio Sette Camara start from ninth alongside compatriot di Grassi.
Outside the top 10, it was a difficult day for several of the Group 1 championship contenders. Yesterday’s race winner Jake Dennis has a fight on his hands to get into the points from 17th on the grid ahead of fellow rookie Nick Cassidy.
Mortara starts 20th after narrowly making it across the line to qualify for ROKiT Venturi.
Bird’s dreams of success on home soil seem far away from 21st on the grid. The only consolation will be that he starts ahead of his closest championship rival Antonio Felix da Costa after a underwhelming session for the DS Techeetah duo. Da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne will line up towards the back of the grid in 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
