Paris ePrix: Bird beats di Grassi to pole, Buemi just eighth

The British driver left the best for last to set a 1m01.616s lap, outpacing championship leader Lucas di Grassi by 0.316s to scoop his third pole position of the season

Bird's teammate Jean-Eric Vergne will start in third at his home event, alongside Stephane Sarrazin, who recovered from a practice accident to place fourth in his Venturi.

Nicolas Prost made it three Frenchman in the top five with his best lap of 1m02.709s in his Renault e.dams car.

Bird had earlier set the fastest time of the group sessions with a 1m01.514 to just eclipse teammate Vergne’s earlier effort of 1m01.770s.

Just outside of the top five, Robin Frijns continued his impressive recent form with sixth place for Andretti, while Oliver Turvey was equally impressive in the hitherto difficult NEXTEV TCR car to start seventh.

Sebastien Buemi, who sits just a point behind current championship points leader di Grassi, will line up only eighth on the starting grid after failing to make it through to the Super Pole stage in his Renault Z.E15.

Reigning champion Nelson Piquet starts ninth to equal his best grid position of the season, while Antonio Felix da Costa’s Team Aguri Speak-Renault completes the top ten.

Dragon Racing’s erratic season continued as Jerome d’Ambrosio claimed 11th position and teammate Loic Duval suffered braking issues which contributed to a lowly 16th on the grid.

Simona de Silvestro will start 12th ahead of Bruno Senna’s Mahindra in 13th and a disappointed Daniel Abt in 14th.

Heidfeld and Conway collide in opening exchanges

The first group session saw drama after Nick Heidfeld spun and backed his Mahindra machine into the wall at the final corner.

The German extricated his car from the tyre wall and tried to rejoin the track but was instantly t-boned by Mike Conway’s Venturi.

The incident brought out the red flag despite both cars making it back to the pits, albeit neither managed to rejoin - with Conway starting 17th and Heidfeld 18th and last.

It was a particularly bitter blow for the innocent Conway who was on schedule to set the quickest time of his group.

All of the drivers struggled with generating sufficient heat in to their tyres and brakes during the session with the temperature just 12-degrees ambient. Several drivers suffered significant moments on their fast laps with Duval and Abt taking trips down escape roads.

Formula E rookie Ma Qing Hua starts from 15th place on the grid after a spirited final lap which saw him slide his Team Aguri car around the final two corners, somehow managing to keep out of the wall.

The first-ever Paris ePrix will take place at 16.00 local time this afternoon.

Qualifying results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:01.514
2	Jean-Eric Vergne	Virgin Racing	1:01.770
3	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:02.148
4	Lucas di Grassi	Team Abt	1:02.249
5	Nicolas Prost	DAMS	1:02.339
6	Robin Frijns	Andretti Autosport	1:02.405
7	Oliver Turvey	China Racing	1:02.492
8	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	1:02.661
9	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:02.685
10	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	1:02.747
11	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:02.797
12	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	1:02.888
13	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:02.915
14	Daniel Abt	Team Abt	1:03.081
15	Ma Qing Hua	Team Aguri	1:03.655
16	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing	1:03.787
17	Mike Conway	Venturi	1:04.798
	Nick Heidfeld	Mahindra Racing