Qualifying report
Formula E Berlin E-prix
Berlin E-Prix: Buemi beats Vandoorne to pole
Nissan e.dams driver Sebastien Buemi took pole position for ABB FIA Formula E’s race in Berlin ahead of fellow ex-Formula 1 racer Stoffel Vandoorne.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: May 25, 2019, 9:30 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Buemi scored his second pole of the 2018/19 season at the scene of his most recent FE win, which came at the Tempelhof track back in ’17, by 0.398s.
The Swiss driver set the best time in the first and third sectors on his flying lap in superpole, recovering from an average middle segment by flying from the final corner – the long Turn 10 hairpin – to set a best time of 1m07.295s.
Vandoorne, who topped the group qualifying part of the session for HWA, nearly matched Buemi in sector one despite a slide at the long near-circular Turn 1.
He remained in contention for pole until the final corner, where carrying too much speed on entry and then a big kick from the rear as he accelerated out of the turn cost him against Buemi.
Lucas di Grassi – the only driver to make it out of the first group in qualifying despite fearing that the unique timetable at the Berlin event would cost those runners – finished third for Audi.
He also had a big slide at Turn 1 but recovered through the lap and ended up ahead of Gary Paffett (HWA), Jaguar’s Alex Lynn and BMW Andretti driver Alexander Sims, who will drop five places on the grid due to his penalty for clashing with di Grassi in Monaco.
Daniel Abt was knocked out of superpole contention at the last moment by Paffett’s late group effort, but is under investigation for a suspected breach of article 33.2 of FE’s sporting regulations, which states that teams must not work on their cars beyond “temperature management” from five minutes before the start of qualifying.
Antonio Felix da Costa qualified eighth as the second highest group one runner, while championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne ended up ninth.
Jerome d’Ambrosio rounded out the top 10 ahead of his Mahindra Racing teammate Pascal Wehrlein.
Group two runners Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird took 12th and 13th, while Edoardo Mortara could not replicate his high practice placings – he finished second in both FP1 and FP2 – as he finished down in 16th for Venturi.
Mortara’s teammate Felipe Massa clipped the walls twice at Turn 6 – where attack mode is located for the race – and the following fast left of Turn 7 on his way to 19th from group three.
Robin Frijns and Andre Lotterer took the final two positions, with the former hindered by a wheelspin sensor issue on his group one lap.
Lotterer, second in the standings by just one point, did not get to set a time in group one as he missed the cut by a split second at the end of his second warm up lap when following di Grassi and Vergne.
Lotterer will start ahead of Frijns as the Envision Virgin Racing driver also has a five-place grid penalty carried over from Monaco.
Starting grid:
Cla Driver Team Time Gap 1 Sébastien Buemi
Nissan e.dams 1'07.295 2 Stoffel Vandoorne
HWA AG 1'07.693 0.398 3 Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 1'07.719 0.424 4 Gary Paffett
HWA AG 1'07.783 0.488 5 Alex Lynn
Jaguar Racing 1'07.849 0.554 6 Daniel Abt
Team Abt 1'07.953 0.658 7 Antonio Felix da Costa
Andretti Autosport 1'08.013 0.718 8 Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 1'08.046 0.751 9 Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Mahindra Racing 1'08.065 0.770 10 Pascal Wehrlein
Mahindra Racing 1'08.086 0.791 11 Alexander Sims
Andretti Autosport 1'08.017 0.722 12 Oliver Rowland
Nissan e.dams 1'08.119 0.824 13 Sam Bird
Virgin Racing 1'08.182 0.887 14 Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.203 0.908 15 Maximilian Gunther
Dragon Racing 1'08.218 0.923 16 Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 1'08.223 0.928 17 Tom Dillmann
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.263 0.968 18 Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 1'08.314 1.019 19 Felipe Massa
Venturi 1'08.348 1.053 20 Jose Maria Lopez
Dragon Racing 1'08.720 1.425 21 Andre Lotterer
Techeetah 1'12.568 5.273 22 Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 1'08.919 1.624 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Berlin E-Prix: Lotterer quickest in Friday practice
Next article Berlin E-Prix: di Grassi dominates at Audi's homeground
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Kalinauckas
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
More from
Sébastien Buemi
Sebastien Buemi questions WEC race control’s VSC/FCY calls
WEC
WEC
Fuji
Sebastien Buemi questions WEC race control’s VSC/FCY calls
Sebastien Buemi not ruling out Formula E comeback: “I don’t want to close any doors”
Formula E
Formula E
Sebastien Buemi not ruling out Formula E comeback: “I don’t want to close any doors”
More from
Nissan Motorsport
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
Formula E
Formula E
Mexico City ePrix
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
Rowland: I was doubting myself a lot prior to Formula E podium return
Formula E
Formula E
Diriyah ePrix II
Rowland: I was doubting myself a lot prior to Formula E podium return
Nissan suggests NDDP moniker no longer suited to #3 drivers
Super GT
Super GT
Nissan suggests NDDP moniker no longer suited to #3 drivers
Latest news
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
2 h
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
4 h
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 5 h
Dale Jr. explains why he doesn't use 'Earnhardt' in his signature
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe