Stoffel Vandoorne delivered Mercedes EQ with its first pole position in Formula E, coming out on top in qualifying for the final race of the championship’s present season.
The Belgian driver secured his place inside the Super Pole shootout from the second group of runners, ending the initial stages as the third-fastest driver while Sebastien Buemi shot to the top.
When Vandoorne started his Super Pole lap, team-mate Nyck de Vries was the driver to beat and with a 1:15.468s lap, the 28-year-old shot to the top of the timesheets, bettering the Dutchman’s time by 0.270s.
Rene Rast failed to match this lap and as the final runner, Buemi did also, allowing the Belgian to score three bonus points and the top starting spot for the 11th round of the 2019/20 campaign.
Buemi was only 0.059s adrift to take second on the grid while Rast secured third, joining de Vries on the second row of the grid.
Robin Frijns meanwhile completed the top five for Envision Virgin Racing, outpacing ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara who took sixth after a conservative final 250kW run.
Alex Lynn narrowly missed out on a place in Super Pole, however, maintained his Berlin form by delivering Mahindra Racing with seventh on the grid from Group 3.
The Briton was followed by Porsche’s Neel Jani who, after taking his first Formula E points in Race 5, secured eighth while Sergio Sette Camara piloted his GEOX Dragon car to an impressive ninth. Lucas di Grassi completed the top 10.
A difficult initial run for Group 1’s runners saw none of the top six in the Drivers’ Championship qualify inside the top half of the field, with Maximilian Guenther – who initially held the fastest time – taking 18th for BMW.
Formula E’s newest champion in Antonio Felix da Costa followed the 23-year-old German in 19th with Andre Lotterer 20th and DS Techeetah team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne only 21st.
Oliver Rowland, one day on from his pole position and maiden win at Tempelhof, was the slowest driver and qualified in last place, some 1.142s outside of Super Pole.
