Qualifying report
Formula E Berlin ePrix
Berlin ePrix: Di Grassi on pole by 0.001s, Buemi P14
Lucas di Grassi claimed pole position for first race of Formula E’s Berlin double-header by just 0.001s, as championship leader Sebastien Buemi struggled to 14th.
Scott Mitchell
Edited: Jun 10, 2017, 11:47 AM
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Abt Audi Sport’s di Grassi is nursing an ankle injury but put any pain to one side to edge a fascinating qualifying session on the all-electric series’ return to the former Tempelhof airport.
Di Grassi ran first in Super Pole and posted a 1m08.312s, before Jose Maria Lopez lapped just one-thousandth of a second slower – a deficit the Argentine admitted “hurts”.
Felix Rosenqvist topped the group phase of qualifying and was on course to beat di Grassi to pole after setting the best first and second sectors on his flying lap.
But he clipped the kerb at the Turn 9 hairpin and the lost momentum there, and with another small slide through Turn 10, consigned him to third on the grid, less than a tenth slower than di Grassi.
Rosenqvist’s Mahindra teammate Nick Heidfeld topped practice but faded in the shootout and wound up fourth, comfortably clear of Sam Bird, who had a scruffy Super Pole lap.
Pole for di Grassi earns him three points and cuts Buemi’s championship lead to 40 points, and the Brazilian will be further buoyed by the struggles that left Buemi on the seventh row.
Buemi was quickest in the first practice session but was only ninth in FP2 after a mistake on his 200kW lap, and his troubles worsened in qualifying.
The winner of five of the six races so far this season was almost 0.8s slower than Rosenqvist’s benchmark across the four qualifying groups, and he missed out on the superpole by 0.6s.
“It’s really bad,” said Buemi. “I had a lot of oversteer and struggled to put a lap together. It’s going to be a tough one. The speed is not there.”
The Renault-powered drivers struggled in general. Jean-Eric Vergne was best of the quartet in his customer Techeetah entry in sixth, after his qualifying car’s motor was replaced following practice.
He will start ahead of Oliver Turvey, Daniel Abt, Buemi’s works Renault teammate Nico Prost and Jerome d’Ambrosio.
Stephane Sarrazin will start 12th for his first race since switching to Techeetah, one place behind his old Venturi teammate Maro Engel.
Super Pole results:
Pos.DriverTeamTimeGap 1 
Lucas di Grassi 
Team Abt 1'08.312 2 
Jose Maria Lopez 
Virgin Racing 1'08.313 0.001 3 
Felix Rosenqvist 
Mahindra Racing 1'08.395 0.083 4 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Racing 1'08.650 0.338 5 Sam Bird Virgin Racing 1'09.724 1.412
Group stage results:
Pos.#DriverTeamTimeGap 6 25 
Jean-Eric Vergne 
Techeetah 1'08.457 0.286 7 88 Oliver Turvey NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 1'08.607 0.436 8 66 Daniel Abt Team Abt 1'08.620 0.449 9 8 Nicolas Prost DAMS 1'08.692 0.521 10 7 
Jérôme d'Ambrosio 
Dragon Racing 1'08.825 0.654 11 5 Maro Engel 
Venturi 1'08.846 0.675 12 33 Stéphane Sarrazin Techeetah 1'08.890 0.719 13 3 Nelson Piquet Jr. NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 1'08.961 0.790 14 9 
Sébastien Buemi DAMS 1'09.010 0.839 15 4 Tom Dillmann Venturi 1'09.214 1.043 16 20 
Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 1'09.219 1.048 17 27 
Robin Frijns Andretti Autosport 1'09.630 1.459 18 47 Adam Carroll Jaguar Racing 1'09.898 1.727 19 6 Loic Duval Dragon Racing 1'09.923 1.752 20 28 
Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Autosport 1'11.147 2.976
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