Qualifying report
Formula E London ePrix
London ePrix: Sarrazin claims pole for title decider
Stephane Sarrazin claimed pole position in a dry, damp and then finally full wet qualifying session for the Formula E season finale at Battersea Park.
Sam Smith
Edited: Jun 28, 2015, 12:43 PM
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The final two ten minute sessions were held in fully wet conditions, the first running that Formula E has undertaken since a pre-season test at Donington Park last July.
Sarrazin, driving in the first group of five drivers, enjoyed the driest track conditions to lap the 1.81 mile London parkland track in 1m23.901s.
This just eclipsed yesterday’s race one runner-up Jerome D’Ambrosio, who was just 0.064s behind and again starts on the outside of the front row.
Loic Duval was quickest in the second session which appeared to have slightly less favourable track conditions.
The Dragon Racing driver set a 1m24.107 lap to beat local crowd favourite Sam Bird, who starts on the outside of the front row. Bruno Senna starts in fifth place in the Mahindra entered Spark-Renault.
Advantage Buemi in title battle
Winner of yesterday’s race Sebastien Buemi has a significant advantage to become the inaugural Formula E champion as he will start much further up the grid than his two title rivals Nelson Piquet Jr and Lucas Di Grassi.
Buemi starts in sixth place after qualifying in group two, where he was faced with slightly damper conditions than the group one drivers.
The Swiss, who sits seven points behind Piquet in the point’s standings, even glanced the concrete wall coming out of Turn 1, leaving a large and distinctive rubber mark.
Fellow title protagonists Piquet and Di Grassi start 16th and 14th respectively. Di Grassi set what was effectively the ‘wet pole’ lap with a 1m32.570s, stating it was "the maximum" he could do.
Qualifying in the third session, Piquet had survived several lurid sideways moments as he explored the grip levels in the increasingly damp conditions.
The group three qualifying session was red-flagged after three and a half minutes when Sakon Yamamoto crashed his Amlin Aguri at T13. When it restarted the track was fully wet, and with slightly better conditions in the final group, Piquet was shuffled down to 16th place.
Piquet also goes in to the race with a new gearbox, which was changed after the second free practice session this morning.
Standout wet weather performances came from Oliver Turvey and Simona De Silvestro, who will start 12th and 13th.
Qualifying results:
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1 Stephane Sarrazin VENTURI Formula E Team 1'23.901 2 Jerome D'Ambrosio Dragon Racing Formula E Team 1'23.965 0.064 3 Loic Duval Dragon Racing Formula E Team 1'24.107 0.206 4 Sam Bird Virgin Racing Formula E Team 1'24.241 0.340 5 Bruno Senna Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 1'24.318 0.417 6 Sebastien Buemi Team e.dams Renault 1'24.385 0.484 7 Nick Heidfeld VENTURI Formula E Team 1'25.494 1.593 8 Salvador Duran Amlin Aguri 1'25.649 1.748 9 Alex Fontana Trulli Formula E Team 1'25.689 1.788 10 Jarno Trulli Trulli Formula E Team 1'27.093 3.192 11 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT Formula E Team 1'32.570 8.669 12 Oliver Turvey China Racing Formula E Team 1'33.626 9.725 13 Simona de Silvestro Andretti Autosport Formula E Team 1'34.167 10.266 14 Jean-Eric Vergne Andretti Autosport Formula E Team 1'35.032 11.131 15 Nicolas Prost Team e.dams Renault 1'35.111 11.210 16 Nelson Piquet Jr China Racing Formula E Team 1'35.284 11.383 17 Fabio Leimer Virgin Racing Formula E Team 1'35.543 11.642 18 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT Formula E Team 1'38.473 14.572 19 Karun Chandhok Mahindra Racing Formula E Team 1'41.232 17.331 - Sakon Yamamoto Amlin Aguri no time -
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