Qualifying report

Formula E Diriyah ePrix II

Diriyah E-Prix: De Vries pips Mortara to pole by 0.005s

Nyck de Vries beat Edoardo Mortara in the final Diriyah Formula E qualifying duel by just 0.005s, securing pole position by a whisker despite the Venturi driver's late rally.

Jake Boxall-Legge

Edited: Jan 30, 2022, 10:54 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Nyck de Vries, Mercedes Benz EQ, with his Pole Position Award

Mortara got loose into the first corner and looked down and out by the end of the first sector - de Vries going three-tenths faster off the bat.

But Mortara regrouped and reeled off two rapid final sectors, beating de Vries in both, but the Mercedes driver was only just able to absorb his rival's late charge and held pole by the merest of margins - albeit was left "disappointed" by his pole-winning lap.

De Vries had dispatched Mortara's teammate Lucas di Grassi in the semi-finals, the Brazilian elevated into the final four after confusion had reigned supreme in his quarter-final bout with Antonio Felix da Costa, with the DS Techeetah driver under investigation for impeding the Brazilian.

Da Costa had missed his pit-exit signal and instead left on di Grassi's - leaving the Venturi driver initially stranded in the pitlane on a red light.

Mortara had made his way through to the final after seeing off Andre Lotterer and Robin Frijns, while de Vries had overcome Jean-Eric Vergne in the quarter-finals as DS Techeetah managed to get both cars among the duel stages.

Frijns' time in the semi-finals proved stronger than di Grassi's, earning him third on the grid.

Rowland and Frijns were drawn together in the third quarter-final duel - resuming their battle after both came to blows in the opening Diriyah race.

Frijns was able to find fractionally more speed than Rowland in each sector, nailing the final corner to knock the Mahindra driver out of qualifying. Rowland starts 10th after Friday's skirmish with Frijns earned him a three-place grid penalty.

De Vries had set the pace in the opening collection of runs in Group A, being the first driver to get within the 1m08s in the session ahead of the nominal mid-session lull.

Oliver Askew then got within a tenth of the race 1 winner, ahead of a flurry of purple laptimes that precipitated a battle over the top four spots in the session.

Sergio Sette Camara then charged to the top, but was quickly toppled by Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein - before Andre Lotterer put them to the sword with a 1m08.224s.

Oliver Rowland then picked up the pace with a tenth over Lotterer, before de Vries returned to the top with a 1m07.939s. Di Grassi slotted into second, dumping Dennis out at the group stages.

Dennis starts eighth, elevated up a position after Rowland's penalty.

Nick Cassidy did not run in qualifying following his earlier crash in practice, which resigned him to the back of the opening session after requiring multiple repairs.

Da Costa took Stoffel Vandoorne off the top of Group B after the initial set of runs, although Edoardo Mortara posted a 1m07.724s benchmark while the track was marginally more clear after getting baulked on his opening run.

Da Costa got within a tenth of Mortara as Vergne also nipped ahead of Vandoorne, ahead of a final push from each driver in the session.

Vergne cemented his spot with a 1m07.968s lap, while Vandoorne failed to improve on his final run and was displaced from the top four - allowing Alexander Sims a brief sniff of a spot in the duels before Robin Frijns dumped the Mahindra driver out.

Mortara's benchmark remained unbeaten, while da Costa aborted his final lap having already been assured of a place in the knock-out stages.

Sam Bird tapped the wall half-way through the session, causing damage to his rear suspension which put a pin in his session - leaving him last overall in his group.

Diriyah E-Prix - Qualifying results:

Cla # Driver Team Time Gap 1 17 Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Germany Mercedes 1'07.154 2 48 Switzerland Edoardo Mortara
Monaco Venturi 1'07.159 0.005 3 4 Robin Frijns
United Kingdom Virgin Racing 1'07.184 0.030 4 11 Brazil Lucas di Grassi
Monaco Venturi 1'07.216 0.062 5 36 Germany Andre Lotterer
Germany Porsche Team 1'07.285 0.131 6 25 France Jean-Eric Vergne
China Techeetah 1'07.539 0.385 7 13 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
China Techeetah 8 27 Jake Dennis
United States Andretti Autosport 1'08.419 1.265 9 29 United Kingdom Alexander Sims
India Mahindra Racing 1'08.011 0.857 10 30 Oliver Rowland
India Mahindra Racing 1'07.780 0.626 11 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein
Germany Porsche Team 1'08.454 1.300 12 5 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
Germany Mercedes 1'08.257 1.103 13 28 United States Oliver Askew
Andretti Autosport 1'08.626 1.472 14 22 Germany Maximilian Gunther
France DAMS 1'08.339 1.185 15 23 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
France DAMS 1'08.829 1.675 16 9 New Zealand Mitch Evans
United Kingdom Jaguar Racing 1'08.368 1.214 17 3 Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.943 1.789 18 33 Dan Ticktum
NIO Formula E Team 1'08.753 1.599 19 7 Brazil Sergio Sette Camara
United States Dragon Racing 20 99 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Dragon Racing 1'08.811 1.657 21 10 Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 1'13.910 6.756 22 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy
United Kingdom Virgin Racing 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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Was FE's new qualifying system a qualified success?

Next article Diriyah E-Prix: Mortara wins for Venturi after late-race safety car

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

MotoGP's final Australian GP at Phillip Island cancelled due to poor weather

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

MotoGP's final Australian GP at Phillip Island cancelled due to poor weather

2026 MotoGP Australian Grand Prix – How to watch, session times & more

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

3 h

2026 MotoGP Australian Grand Prix – How to watch, session times & more

There will be even less drag in Cup cars at Talladega on Sunday

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

4 h

There will be even less drag in Cup cars at Talladega on Sunday

Kimi Antonelli delivers Austin surprise pole in tricky Mercedes: "Finally we're seeing the results"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

5 h

Kimi Antonelli delivers Austin surprise pole in tricky Mercedes: "Finally we're seeing the results"

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

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