The season opener in Saudi Arabia has seen Mercedes EQ’s Nyck de Vries lead all practice and qualifying sessions on his way to his maiden pole position.
The Dutch driver topped the timing sheets in the first part of qualifying, after his lap in the second group of runners by 0.012s, ahead of the ROKiT Venturi Racing of Edoardo Mortara.
De Vries was the last to head out in Super Pole, but his pace was lightening quick from the get-go.
He was over two-tenths up on provisional pole sitter Pascal Wehrlein after Sector 1, increasing to 0.386s after the second sector. The Mercedes EQ driver eventually took pole position by over six-tenths of second ahead of Wehrlein in the Porsche.
Speaking after qualifying, de Vries said: “It’s been a great start since yesterday, we carried that momentum into today, even though the conditions were very different in FP2.
“We’ve analysed everything very well and put a lot of focus and emphasis on our weaker areas.
“Obviously, we are aware it’s a long way to go but we are very pleased with today’s performance and hopefully we can finish it off this afternoon and keep on going,” he added.
In the first part of qualifying, the Nissan e.dams of Oliver Rowland initially set a strong benchmark, clocking in a 1:09.362, over 0.7s ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in second.
It was a close call for the British driver, who came close to contact with reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa when dashing to the line before the cut-off time.
After his crash in second practice, Robin Frijns was unable to take part in the session. The Envision Virgin Racing car required a battery replacement that prevented him from running.
The second group saw de Vries set the quickest time with a 1:08.786, nearly four-tenths ahead of Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans in second.
However, group three appeared to be the place to be, with four of the six drivers qualifying for Super Pole.
Mortara put his ROKiT Venturi into contention after clocking in a lap only 0.012 seconds behind de Vries. He was followed by groupmates Wehrlein, Audi’s Rene Rast and Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn in fifth.
Yet the fourth group looked to steal the show, with rookie Nick Cassidy getting up to pace with the Formula E cars very quickly.
Dragon / Penske Autosport’s Nico Muller jumped up to fifth, with the Envision Virgin Racing of Cassidy in sixth and Tom Blomqvist in seventh for NIO.
On the other side of the garage, the second Dragon/Penske Autosport of Sergio Sette Camara struggled. The Brazilian driver went into the barrier on the final corner, triggering a yellow flag.
Muller, Cassidy and Blomqvist all completed their laps under the yellow flag and their times were eventually deleted as a result.
However, questions have been raised as the yellow flag only appeared towards the final corners of the lap, where drivers may not have had enough space left on track to slow down enough.
This meant that the Super Pole shoot out consisted of six different drivers from six different teams, with de Vries, Mortara, Wehrlein, Rast, Lynn and Evans all lining up to fight for the Julius Baer Pole Position.
With de Vries and Wehrlein locking out the front row, Rast lines up in third, just ahead of Mortara.
Lynn lines up in fifth, in front of former teammate Evans and the second Porsche of Andre Lotterer.
Sam Bird will start in eighth for Jaguar, with Maximillian Guenther as the lead BMW I Andretti in ninth.
After his promising opening lap, Rowland lines up in tenth and Alexander Sims starts in 11th.
Rookie Norman Nato pipped NIO’s Oliver Turvey to 12th by 0.003s, with the second BMW I Andretti of Jake Dennis in 14th.
In a rather disappointing showing, Nyck de Vries’ teammate Stoffel Vandoorne lines up on the eighth row, with Formula E champions Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi for company.
Considering their dominance towards the end of last season, the DS Techeetahs of da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne will be frustrated to start in 18th and 19th.
After having their times deleted for setting their fastest laps during a yellow flag, Cassidy will start in 20th, ahead of Blomqvist and Muller.
Sette Camara will start on the back row of the grid after failing to complete his flying lap, and Frijns rounds out the timing sheets after being unable to qualify.
The season opening Diriyah E-Prix will get underway today at 8:03pm local time (5:03pm GMT).
[motorsport_result id=’56790′]
