Qualifying report
Formula E Diriyah ePrix II
Diriyah E-Prix: Rowland dominates to take pole from Frijns
Oliver Rowland bagged his first Formula E pole for more than a year after beating Robin Frijns to the top spot in qualifying for the second Diriyah E-Prix.
Stefan Mackley
Edited: Jan 27, 2024, 5:07 PM
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The Nissan driver was in impressive form during all stages of qualifying in Saudi Arabia and saved his best effort until his final duel against Frijns.
Fastest time in all three sectors left him with a 1m10.055s, the quickest lap from the entirety of qualifying, which bagged Rowland his first pole since Seoul in 2022.
Rowland had progressed to the final by beating Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy by less than two tenths in their semi-final duel, as Frijns got the better of DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne by a similar margin in their semi-final clash.
Rowland booked his place in the semi-finals after beating Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala by more than six tenths, the Indian driver having progressed to the duels for the first time in his fledgling Formula E career.
Cassidy was never headed in his battle against McLaren’s Jake Hughes, while a small error from Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz in the opening sector meant he lost out against Vandoorne.
Polesitter from yesterday’s Diriyah E-Prix Jean-Eric Vergne was firmly beaten in his quarter-final duel with Frijns, the DS Penske driver finishing 0.227s adrift.
Reigning champion Jake Dennis will have to climb from 15th on the grid if he is to repeat his opening Diriyah E-Prix victory, after his final qualifying effort was thwarted by a red flag in the qualifying stages.
The Andretti driver was left eighth in the second group and unable to improve after Sebastien Buemi crashed at Turn 2 as the chequered flag came out with drivers on their final laps.
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Nick Cassidy, Jaguar TCS Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6
It left Rowland’s 1m10.486s as the quickest time from Cassidy, who had completed his lap just seconds before Buemi’s accident, Hughes and Daruvala.
Buemi had set the fifth-fastest time but the Envision driver lost his best lap for causing the red flag, with it being confirmed post-qualifying that he would not start this evening's race due to the damage sustained to his car in the accident.
Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), McLaren’s Sam Bird, Dennis, Nico Muller (Abt Cupra), Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) and Lucas di Grassi (Abt Cupra) completed the order.
After losing a podium position on the final lap of the Diriyah E-Prix yesterday, Mitch Evans’s Saudi Arabian experience went from bad to worse as he too failed to progress beyond the group stage.
Having topped FP3 earlier in the day, the Jaguar driver could only finish seventh in the opening group, which was headed by Fenestraz, Frijns, Vergne and Vandoorne.
For the second race in a row, Mexico City E-Prix winner Pascal Wehrlein also failed to progress beyond the group stage as the Porsche driver finished fifth, just over a tenth away from a coveted spot.
The current championship leader headed Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther, Evans, Dan Ticktum (ERT), Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) and Norman Nato (Andretti).
Wehrlein’s team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa continued his disastrous start to the season by finishing bottom of the group, more than one second behind Fenestraz’s 1m10.641s.
Diriyah E-Prix - Qualifying results:
Main Information Additional Data
Driver Info
Main Information
Cla Driver # Time km/h 1 O. Rowland Nissan e.dams 22
1'10.055
128.162 2 R. Frijns Envision Racing 4
+0.274
1'10.329
127.662 3 N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37
+0.240
1'10.295
127.724 4 S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2
+0.572
1'10.627
127.124 5 J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18
+0.731
1'10.786
126.838 6 J. Hughes McLaren 5
+0.939
1'10.994
126.467 7 S. Fenestraz Nissan e.dams 23
+1.022
1'11.077
126.319 8 J. Vergne DS Penske 25
+1.057
1'11.112
126.257 9 S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3
+0.931
1'10.986
126.481 10 P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94
+0.891
1'10.946
126.552 11 S. Buemi Envision Racing 16
+1.097
1'11.152
126.186 12 M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7
+0.938
1'10.993
126.468 13 S. Bird McLaren 8
+1.110
1'11.165
126.163 14 M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9
+0.987
1'11.042
126.381 15 J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1
+1.173
1'11.228
126.051 16 D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33
+1.252
1'11.307
125.911 17 N. Müller Team Abt 51
+1.313
1'11.368
125.804 18 N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21
+1.272
1'11.327
125.876 19 E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48
+1.331
1'11.386
125.772 20 N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17
+1.335
1'11.390
125.765 21 L. di Grassi Team Abt 11
+1.751
1'11.806
125.036 22 A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13
+1.607
1'11.662
125.288 View full results
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