Envision Virgin Racing’s flying Dutchman has achieved his first pole position in Formula E on his 47th attempt.
Robin Frijns, who topped FP3 earlier today, clocked in a stellar 1:07.810 in the first session and was determined to make amends after being unable to take part in qualifying yesterday.
“I really didn’t expect it, jumped in the car in FP3 and we had a long night yesterday. A lot of work put in and it worked out so I’m really happy with the car and really happy with what the team did overnight,” he said.
Qualifying was drama filled from the get-go, with several cars already out before the session even got underway.
There were five notable absences from qualifying, with yesterday’s race winner Nyck De Vries, Stoffel Vandoorne, Edoardo Mortara, Norman Nato and Andre Lotterer all missing.
Both Mercedes EQ and ROKiT Venturi were prevented from qualifying, as an investigation continues into the cause of Mortara’s crash in FP3 earlier.
Mortara is currently undergoing precautionary checks at hospital and the Lotterer’s Porsche is still undergoing repairs after an early incident in practice.
Mercedes EQ’s Team Principal, Ian James, said: “I think we are well underway of knowing roughly which area to look at the moment.
“The discussion have been going on with the FIA, so I think we know what the failure was, but we need to make sure that the failure can’t happen on the other cars as well.”
The drama then followed into Group 1, as a miscalculation resulted in Mitch Evans and Rene Rast failing to cross the timing beam in time to set a lap, after being nose-to-tail with Oliver Rowland on their preparation laps.
Group 1’s Pascal Wehrlein was out ahead of the rest of the pack and clocked in a 1:09.601. Rowland’s Nissan e.Dams then went over eight-tenths ahead of the Porsche.
The surprises continued into Group 2, with reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa going quickest, after his disappointing qualifying session yesterday.
But the standout of the group was NIO 333’s Oliver Turvey, who went fastest with a 1:08.424. Turvey recorded NIO’s first points in over a year yesterday.
Group 3 saw the Nissan e.Dams of Sebastien Buemi clock in the second fastest lap before being overtaken by Jean-Eric Vergne moments later.
Tom Blomqvist then overtook his teammate Turvey with a 1:08.367 to go top, before Frijns put in a superb 1:07.810, over five-tenths ahead of the NIO 333.
Not to be outdone by the earlier groups, Group 4 also put in some shocking performances.
Both Dragon/Penske Autosport’s of Sergio Sette Camara and Nico Muller made it to Super Pole, alongside Sam Bird in the Jaguar.
Super Pole got off to a disappointing start for Muller, who went off the line at Turns 16 and 17 and starts in sixth.
The British duo of Turvey and Blomqvist then put in incredibly strong performances for NIO in fourth and fifth, with Turvey nearly three-tenths ahead of his teammate.
Bird then put his Jaguar on provisional pole, 0.034 seconds ahead of Turvey. However, the surprise of the session came courtesy of Sette Camara, who took provisional pole with a 1:08.178. He was over two-tenths up on Bird after the first two sectors alone.
Yet on his 47th attempt, it was Frijns who stole the show, clocking in a 1:07.889 to take his maiden pole position by nearly three-tenths.
It was a better day on track for the DS Techeetah’s with Vergne starting in seventh, with his teammate and reigning champion da Costa in 10th.
Buemi took eighth, ahead of Lynn who has a three-place grid penalty after his collision with Bird yesterday, and the second Envision Virgin of Nick Cassidy startsin 11th.
BMW I Andretti’s Maximillian Guenther was 12th quickest, narrowly ahead of Rowland. Sims took 14th, over a second behind the leading time.
Di Grassi was 15th for Audi, and it was a disappointing session for Wehrlein, who will line up in 16th.
Rookie Jake Dennis starts from 17th place after being over 1.5 seconds adrift of the next car.
Evans and Rast round out the timing sheets in 18th and 19th after failing to set a representative time, with the Mercedes EQs, ROKiT Venturi’s and Porsche’s Lotterer not classified.
Thoughts now turn to Formula E’s second duel in the dark and if qualifying is anything to go by, this night race could prove to throw up some surprises.
Fans will also have to wait and see whether Mercedes EQ and ROKiT Venturi will be able to take part in the race, as investigations are still ongoing.
[motorsport_result id=’56907′]
