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Edition

Australia

New York ePrix: Lynn takes sensational pole on debut

Alex Lynn claimed a stunning debut Formula E pole position for the electric single-seater series’ first race in New York.

Alex Lynn, DS Virgin Racing

Alex Lynn, DS Virgin Racing

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Alex Lynn, DS Virgin Racing
Alex Lynn, DS Virgin Racing
Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing

The DS Virgin Racing driver, standing in for Jose Maria Lopez, beat Daniel Abt to triumph in the pole position shootout by two tenths of a second around the Brooklyn circuit.

Lynn was quickest in a damp FP1 on his FE debut, and carried that pace into qualifying by making it into the superpole at the first attempt.

Abt nailed a front row start by edging Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne by just 0.003s, with Lynn’s teammate Sam Bird a further 0.020s back.

Jerome d’Ambrosio gave the beleaguered Faraday Future Dragon Racing squad something to cheer at its home race with the team’s first superpole appearance of the season.

After setting the second-best time in the group stage a mistake at the start of his lap immediately consigned d’Ambrosio to the slowest superpole time, although fifth is still the team’s best starting position of the campaign.

While Lynn celebrated a shock pole, his fellow rookie Pierre Gasly, parachuted in for championship leader Sebastien Buemi at Renault with no preparation, fared less well.

He was slowest of the five runners in the opening group and will line up 19th, only spared qualifying last by a problem for Maro Engel that stopped the Venturi driver on track before he set a 200kW lap.

Behind the superpole runners, Nick Heidfeld, Nelson Piquet Jr, Oliver Turvey, Nico Prost and Lucas di Grassi completed the top 10.

Di Grassi complained of a yellow flag, thrown for Engel’s stopped car, on his flying lap, but his poor grid position will be music to the ears of the absent Buemi, who like Lopez is on Toyota LMP1 duty at the Nurburgring World Endurance Championship round.

Another driver hoping to take advantage of the missing points leader is Felix Rosenqvist, but the Berlin race winner will start the opening race towards the back of the grid.

Rosenqvist topped FP2 but a lurid slide at Turn 1, the hairpin that is located halfway round the qualifying lap thanks to offset timing beams, cost him time on his qualifying flier and left him 17th.

 

Superpole times

ClaDriverTeamTimeGap
1 united_kingdom Alex Lynn  united_kingdom Virgin Racing 1'03.296  
2 germany Daniel Abt  germany Team Abt 1'03.534 0.238
3 france Jean-Eric Vergne  china Techeetah 1'03.537 0.241
4 united_kingdom Sam Bird  united_kingdom Virgin Racing 1'03.557 0.261
5 belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio  united_states Dragon Racing 1'07.203 3.907

Qualifying times

ClaDriverTeamTimeGap
1 united_kingdom Sam Bird  united_kingdom Virgin Racing 1'02.806  
2 belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio  united_states Dragon Racing 1'02.881 0.075
3 germany Daniel Abt  germany Team Abt 1'02.888 0.082
4 united_kingdom Alex Lynn  united_kingdom Virgin Racing 1'03.009 0.203
5 france Jean-Eric Vergne  china Techeetah 1'03.091 0.285
6 germany Nick Heidfeld  india Mahindra Racing 1'03.193 0.387
7 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr.  china NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 1'03.361 0.555
8 united_kingdom Oliver Turvey  china NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team 1'03.385 0.579
9 france Nicolas Prost  france DAMS 1'03.433 0.627
10 brazil Lucas di Grassi  germany Team Abt 1'03.480 0.674
11 france Stéphane Sarrazin  china Techeetah 1'03.508 0.702
12 france Loic Duval  united_states Dragon Racing 1'03.521 0.715
13 united_kingdom Adam Carroll  united_kingdom Jaguar Racing 1'03.555 0.749
14 new_zealand Mitch Evans  united_kingdom Jaguar Racing 1'03.637 0.831
15 france Tom Dillmann  monaco Venturi 1'03.795 0.989
16 netherlands Robin Frijns  united_states Andretti Autosport 1'03.830 1.024
17 sweden Felix Rosenqvist  india Mahindra Racing 1'04.300 1.494
18 portugal Antonio Felix da Costa  united_states Andretti Autosport 1'04.585 1.779
19 france Pierre Gasly  france DAMS 1'04.936 2.130
20 germany Maro Engel  monaco Venturi 1'17.571 14.765

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