Berlin E-Prix: Vergne pips teammate da Costa to take pole

Having topped the group one session, reigning champion Vergne was the last driver to take to the track in super pole and he eclipsed runaway points leader da Costa by 0.14s to score back-to-back poles. It also meant DS Techeetah set a new Formula E record of five consecutive pole positions. 

Vergne was 0.01s down in the first sector but recovered that through the second split with a 0.003s cushion to post the fastest time of the day and set his peerless 1m06.247s effort. 

Da Costa, who will be guaranteed of the title if he wins the race at Tempelhof Airport today, was the first out in super pole and his brilliant second sector kept him at the top until Vergne’s flier. 

Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland reported that he was finally back to full one-lap confidence after his sizeable Santiago qualifying shunt, and he ran a comparatively distant third – 0.445s off the top.

He had been a direct match for Vergne after his group two run, setting an identical time but running to a provisional second by delivering his lap later in the session. Rowland edged out his team-mate Sebastien Buemi by only 0.12s, as a sizeable front-right lock up for Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries dropped him to fifth place. 

Felipe Massa was a surprise super pole contestant after his messy first three races in Berlin, but a very good second and third sector took him through from group three to fourth and into super pole.  

However, frustration with the brakes and over-heated rear tyres for the final-half of his second lap meant he was 0.67s off the pace.  

Prior to super pole, da Costa had been watching on from the garage, clapping his survival into the top-six shootout, and he hung on to a top-six spot despite Alex Lynn and Rene Rast providing a late group four scare.

Rast crossed the timing line in a sound seventh, but the Audi driver was immediately relegated by Lynn, pipped by a narrow 0.013s as da Costa survived by 0.03s.  

Mahindra Racing driver Jerome D’Ambrosio progressed to the final shootout in the first and third Berlin races but he lost 0.3s in the middle sector to rank in ninth.  Robin Frijns, who missed out on the race three spoils by 0.128s in the closest finish at the line in FE history, could only return 10^th for Envision Virgin Racing. 

Jaguar’s renewed pace, led by Mitch Evans, had been good enough for second in group one – the Kiwi driver only behind da Costa after the first session. But as the track surfaced evolved, he was consistently relegated to his eventual 11^th spot ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Massa’s teammate Edoardo Mortara. 

Again, several big names stumbled in the group stages, with BMW Andretti driver Alexander Sims ranking in 16^th behind James Calado and Nico Muller. Sam Bird once more struggled in qualifying, adding a 17^th-place start to his 20^th from the previous day, but he still managed to out-rank Andre Lotterer for Porsche. 

Behind NIO 333 pilot Oliver Turvey was Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne – traditionally super strong in qualifying but he ran 0.356s off the pace in group one to remain at the mercy of the next 18 drivers. 

Maximilian Gunther, who won the Saturday race over Frijns and Vergne, was the first driver to head out in the session and a slow all-round lap meant he was just 21st. 

Cla	#	Driver		Team	Time	Gap	km/h
1	25	Jean-Eric Vergne		Techeetah	1'06.107		128.246
2	13	Antonio Felix da Costa		Techeetah	1'06.247	0.140	127.975
3	22	Oliver Rowland		DAMS	1'06.552	0.445	127.389
4	23	Sébastien Buemi		DAMS	1'06.564	0.457	127.366
5	17	Nyck de Vries		Mercedes	1'06.597	0.490	127.303
6	19	Felipe Massa		Venturi	1'06.777	0.670	126.959
7	94	Alex Lynn		Mahindra Racing	1'06.741	0.634	127.028
8	66	René Rast		Team Abt	1'06.754	0.647	127.003
9	64	Jérôme d'Ambrosio		Mahindra Racing	1'06.778	0.671	126.957
10	4	Robin Frijns		Virgin Racing	1'06.818	0.711	126.881
11	20	Mitch Evans		Jaguar Racing	1'06.859	0.752	126.804
12	11	Lucas di Grassi		Team Abt	1'06.866	0.759	126.790
13	48	Edoardo Mortara		Venturi	1'06.870	0.763	126.783
14	51	James Calado		Jaguar Racing	1'06.904	0.797	126.718
15	7	Nico Müller		Dragon Racing	1'06.940	0.833	126.650
16	27	Alexander Sims		Andretti Autosport	1'06.951	0.844	126.629
17	2	Sam Bird		Virgin Racing	1'06.953	0.846	126.626
18	36	Andre Lotterer		Porsche Team	1'07.036	0.929	126.469
19	3	Oliver Turvey		NIO Formula E Team	1'07.038	0.931	126.465
20	5	Stoffel Vandoorne		Mercedes	1'07.064	0.957	126.416
21	28	Maximilian Gunther		Andretti Autosport	1'07.103	0.996	126.343
22	18	Neel Jani		Porsche Team	1'07.119	1.012	126.312
23	33	Daniel Abt		NIO Formula E Team	1'07.351	1.244	125.877
24	6	Sergio Sette Camara		Dragon Racing	1'07.492	1.385	125.614
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