New York E-Prix: Cassidy takes pole ahead of Vergne

Cassidy, driving for Envision Virgin Racing, which counts three wins on the Red Hook circuit, was only the third driver to take to the track in the top-six superpole shootout. 

With three fastest sectors, his 1m09.336s effort sealed provisional pole by some 0.2s and he survived the advanced of champions Vergne and Sebastien Buemi to land a second pole after Rome - when the Super GT and Super Formula champion spun out on the opening lap. 

DS Techeetah driver Vergne had eclipsed Cassidy through the middle sector but for the 0.1s he gained, he lost that time again in both the first and final sectors to land second place. 

He ran 0.161s adrift of Kiwi Cassidy but beat first superpole runner Alex Lynn to the front row, beating the impressive effort of the Mahindra Racing driver by 0.039s. 

Lynn, who scored pole in New York City on his series debut back in 2017, will start alongside BMW Andretti’s Maximillian Gunther as Buemi will line up fifth. 

With a new gearbox, motor and inverter aboard his Nissan e.dams machine and carrying the advantage of a group four running order, Buemi’s tepid season seemed to turn a corner when he topped the group stages. 

But the 2015-16 champion suffered a heavy lock up into Turn 1 to immediately stymy his final flying lap and he ran to fifth ahead of a subdued effort for Pascal Wehrlein. 

The Porsche driver, disqualified from his and the manufacturer’s maiden win in Puebla, completed the fastest final sector of the day but ran 0.414s off Cassidy’s pace. 

Lucas di Grassi, confident the bumpy New York City circuit mimics the nature of the Rome track on which he led prior to a driveshaft failure, was the first to miss superpole. 

The Audi driver, who led a team 1-2 in the Puebla opener last time out, was pipped to the top-six cut-off by Lynn by just 0.013s but beat a recovering Oliver Rowland’s second effort. 

Rowland was the cause of a bizarre red flag incident during the second group phase. 

The Nissan e.dams charge entered Turn 1 of his flying lap but clipped the tall inside kerb at the apex, which sent his car into a spin, with the rear then collecting Sam Bird. 

Bird, who was able to take part in the session after a mammoth tub build for Jaguar Racing following an uncharacteristic error in free practice, admitted his car balance was wayward. 

That turned his qualifying entry into an effective extra shakedown period, meaning he slowed at the exit of the opening right-hander to give Rowland space on his flier. 

But as Rowland rotated, the rear of his car flicked round and pincered Bird by the wall. 

The session was eventually resumed with all six cars able to take part, and double Mexico front-row starter Rowland snared eighth ahead of Alexander Sims and Andre Lotterer. 

Another major headline was created by Edoardo Mortara, who currently leads the standings by a comparatively lofty 10 points ahead of the final three double-headers of the season. 

The Venturi Racing driver knocked the scenario switch on his steering wheel, which took his Mercedes customer car out of the 250kW full power mode and into a lower 200kW setting. 

That cost him 1.63s at the time and puts him last on the grid, having fallen foul of a similar issue that affected the work Mercedes car of Nyck de Vries in Monaco qualifying in May. 

This incident gave his title rivals breathing space in the unfavoured group one battle on a comparatively green surface, with current runner-up Robin Frijns edging out his rivals. 

The Envision Virgin Racing driver ran to 11th ahead of Dragon Penske Autosport’s group four entrant Sergio Sette Camara and then defending champion Antonio Felix da Costa. 

Behind Oliver Turvey and BMW Andretti rookie Jake Dennis, the Jaguar machine of Mitch Evans nabbed 16th with the second NIO 333 of Tom Blomqvist set to start in 17th. 

Another stunted session from Mercedes put de Vries just 18th ahead of Norman Nato and a subdued Bird, while Stoffel Vandoorne’s shot at pole was ruined by a slow last sector. 

The Silver Arrows 02 driver, running in group two, was in contention with the fastest middle sector at the time before he dropped a hefty 1.3s in the final sector to qualifying 21st. 

Rene Rast, Audi’s full-season rookie, was another to lose out in the title race. Currently fourth in the drivers’ table and only two points off second, the German was 1.5s adrift of the group qualifying pace and will start down in 23rd.  

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	37	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing	1'09.338
2	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah	1'09.499	0.161
3	94	Alex Lynn	Mahindra Racing	1'09.538	0.200
4	28	Maximilian Gunther	Andretti Autosport	1'09.614	0.276
5	23	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	1'09.713	0.375
6	99	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team	1'09.752	0.414
7	11	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	1'09.759	0.421
8	22	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1'09.891	0.553
9	29	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing	1'09.892	0.554
10	36	Andre Lotterer	Porsche Team	1'10.028	0.690
11	4	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing	1'10.063	0.725
12	7	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon Racing	1'10.147	0.809
13	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	Techeetah	1'10.156	0.818
14	8	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team	1'10.181	0.843
15	27	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport	1'10.239	0.901
16	20	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing	1'10.526	1.188
17	88	Tom Blomqvist	NIO Formula E Team	1'10.530	1.192
18	17	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	1'10.581	1.243
19	71	Norman Nato	Venturi	1'10.658	1.320
20	10	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing	1'10.934	1.596
21	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes	1'10.952	1.614
22	6	Joel Eriksson	Dragon Racing	1'11.036	1.698
23	33	René Rast	Team Abt	1'11.271	1.933
24	48	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi	1'11.690	2.352
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