Following technical issues and his disqualification from yesterday’s race, Oliver Rowland bounced back to take his fourth Julius Baer Pole Position, beating out Pascal Wehrlein and podium-finisher Edoardo Mortara
The British driver has been rapid all weekend, having set the pace in FP1 and FP2 and qualifying on the front row for Rounds 8 and 9 alongside Wehrlein.
Initially, it looked as though Jake Dennis would be the one to beat as the BMW i Andretti driver clocked in the fastest time in Group Qualifying with a 1:22.816, over two-tenths quicker than Rowland and Jean-Eric Vergne.
They were joined in Super Pole by Mahindra’s Alex Lynn, Wehrlein and Mortara. However, a scrappy session ensued as Wehrlein touched the marbles on the final corner and Rowland had difficulties at Turns 7 and 8, before his back end slid out on the final two corners.
Nevertheless, he was able to snatch pole position for Nissan e.dams, clocking in a time of 1:23.579 to go 0.192s quicker than Wehrlein.
Mortara will line up in third with Vergne in the DS Techeetah for company on the second row. Dennis was forced to settle for fifth following a series of mistakes.
Lynn’s time was deleted for a technical infraction and will make an all-British fifth row from sixth.
Following a disappointing qualifying yesterday, Buemi bounced back to qualify just outside of Super Pole contention in seventh and ahead of Envision Virgin’s Nick Cassidy.
Tom Blomqvist will be pleased to start from ninth for NIO 333, as Andre Lotterer rounds out the top 10.
Round 8 race winner Lucas di Grassi could only manage to achieve the 13th quickest time, over a second off of Dennis’ leading time.
History continued to repeat itself for the championship contenders in Group 1 as they fought for on-track position during their preparation laps, with Robin Frijns sending it up the inside of Stoffel Vandoorne and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Vandoorne managed to clock in the fastest time in his group with a 1:24.736, but this was only good enough for 17th place.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans qualified in 18th, ahead of Nyck de Vries and championship leader Frijns in 21st and da Costa in 22nd.
Despite his second-place finish yesterday, Rene Rast will be forced to start from the back of the grid. The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler driver’s time was deleted after he slid off at Turn 4 and rejoined the track.
[motorsport_result id=’66523′]
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