Andre Lotterer secured a maiden Formula E pole position for Porsche, beating Mitch Evans in qualifying for the Mexico City E-Prix.
The German racer completed his initial qualifying run in Group 2, securing a place in the Super Pole shootout while Jaguar Racing’s Evans fronted the session as the fastest runner of the group stages.
Following unsuccessful laps for Sam Bird and Sebastien Buemi, Lotterer shot to provisional pole, completing a 1m 07.992s run around the 2.606km-long circuit, beating Pascal Wehrlein.
As the fifth runner, Mercedes EQ’s Nyck de Vries failed to challenge Lotterer while Evans – who was the final runner – fell 0.063s short of the best time overall.
With Lotterer lining up on pole, Evans will start alongside on the front row of the grid. Mahindra Racing’s Wehrlein meanwhile secured third, however, will line up at the pack of the pack following a 40-place grid penalty in the run-up to the E-Prix.
De Vries slotted into fourth overall and was followed by Buemi and Bird, who secured his Super Pole spot from the first group.
Outside of the Super Pole runners, Robin Frijns secured seventh in the second Envision Virgin Racing entry while Nico Muller impressed for GEOX Dragon, delivering the American outfit with eighth.
Jean-Eric Vergne, who completed his qualifying run in Group 3 only managed ninth for DS Techeetah while team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa followed the Frenchman to complete the top 10.
Behind da Costa, championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne qualified in 11th from Group 1 while BMW i Andretti Motorsport runners Maximilian Guenther and Alexander Sims secured 18th and 20th, struggling for pace at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez despite high initial expectations in the run-up to the weekend.
After getting released from hospital following his accident in FP1, Audi’s Daniel Abt did not contest qualifying, with his Audi team pinning the cause of the crash on a software communication problem, the car failing to decelerate as it should under braking.
This issue has been rectified on the remaining three Audi e-tron FE06 cars of Lucas di Grassi, Bird and Frijns ahead of the race.
| # | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | A. Lotterer | Porsche | 1:07.922 |
| 02 | M. Evans | Jaguar | 0.063 |
| 03 | P. Wehrlein | Mahindra | 0.278 |
| 04 | N. De Vries | Mercedes | 0.292 |
| 05 | S. Buemi | Nissan | 0.442 |
| 06 | S. Bird | Virgin | 0.522 |
| 07 | R. Frijns | Virgin | |
| 08 | N. Muller | Dragon | |
| 09 | J. Vergne | DS Techeetah | |
| 10 | A. Da Costa | DS Techeetah | |
| 11 | S. Vandoorne | Mercedes | |
| 12 | E. Mortara | Venturi | |
| 13 | O. Rowland | Nissan | |
| 14 | J. D’Ambrosio | Mahindra | |
| 15 | B. Hartley | Dragon | |
| 16 | N. Jani | Porsche | |
| 17 | L. Di Grassi | Audi | |
| 18 | M. Guenther | BMW i | |
| 19 | J. Calado | Jaguar | |
| 20 | A. Sims | BMW i | |
| 21 | F. Massa | Venturi | |
| 22 | M. Qing Hua | NIO 333 | |
| 23 | O. Turvey | NIO 333 | |
| 24 | D. Abt | Audi |
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