The 3 points of the Julius Baer Pole Position for Round 16 of the Hana Bank Seoul E-Prix went to Da Costa, who won the Duels Final against Mortara. Vandoorne will start the race in fourth position, with title rival Evans on the seventh row after struggling for pace in Qualifying.
The last Duels Final of the season came down to Antonio Felix Da Costa and Edoardo Mortara, the DS Techeetah driver eventually emerging as the winner in one of the closest Qualifying battles of the day. After being separated by less than a tenth of a second, Mortara made a costly mistake in the last sector – but still finished the session with the fastest time overall, a 1:20.913 set in his Duel against Stoffel Vandoorne in the Semi-Finals.
Da Costa had won the previous duel against Andretti’s Jake Dennis – who will start the race in P3 ahead of Vandoorne.
The championship leader won’t be too worried, as his title rival Mitch Evans wasn’t able to qualify in the top 4 of Group B to proceed to the Duels. The Jaguar driver will start the race in P13 behind Vandoorne’s teammate Nyck de Vries, his chances of winning the title now even slimmer as he would need to win Round 16, or finish second with the fastest lap and Vandoorne out of the points to seal the deal.
The Quarter Finals saw Mortara going up against Dan Ticktum in the first duel, the NIO333 driver managing P7 on the grid after a mighty effort on his first Duels appearance.
Venturi’s Lucas Di Grassi will start ahead of Ticktum in 6th after losing a tight battle against Dennis. Robin Frijns lost out against Da Costa, but he was best of the rest in the Quarter Finals – possibly the closest battle of the day, which rewarded the Envision driver with the fifth sloth on the grid of Round 16.
Jean-Eric Vergne looked posed for a good double result for DS Techeetah, but he lost more than a second with a mistake in his duel against Vandoorne, which relegated him to the last spot in the top 8.
Maximilian Gunther and Sergio Sette Camara rounded up the top 10 after narrowly missing out on the Duels in their group stages.
With rain threatening the race for the second day in a row, the Season 8 finale could be another unpredictable one – even when it comes to the title fight.
Round 16 will start at 4PM local time, 8AM BST.
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