Sebastian Buemi regained the all-time pole position record after beating Jake Hughes in the duels final.
Buemi earned his 15th career pole and first with his new team Envision racing in a strong showing across the session for whole Jaguar family.
Maserati MSG had a very tough session with both of their drivers ending up in the wall during Group A qualifying. Maximillian Gunther brought out a red flag early in the session, locking his front tyres and hitting the Tekpro at high speed. Edoardo Mortara lost the rear of his Maserati around turn 13, making contact with the wall and limping back to the pits.
After an eventful Group A Qualifying session, both Mahindra cars, Jake Hughes in the McLaren and Dan Ticktum in the NIO 333 advanced through to the duels.
In Group B, Nico Muller was unable to take part in the session due to repairs still taking place on his ABT Cupra FP2 shunt. Sergio Sette Camara and Pascal Wehrlein narrowly avoided contact after the NIO 333 driver had difficulty seeing the approaching Porsche in time to get out of the way.
Both Jaguar cars made it out of the group stages for only the second time ever. However, DS Penske was still unable to unlock their one-lap qualifying pace with neither of their cars out of the group stages once again.
In the Quarter Finals, both Mahindra’s were beaten by Ticktum and Hughes in their matchups, leaving the two Britons to face off once again. In the Group B quarter finals, Sebastian Buemi and Sam Bird both won their first duels battle in Formula E with Bird setting the fastest lap time of the round.
It was all looking so positive for Ticktum to progress to the final until he lost the rear of the car at the final corner, losing his two-tenths advantage on Hughes. In the other semi-final, Buemi beat Bird by a tenth of a second and secured his finals battle against Hughes. Bird and Ticktum will start third and fourth respectively.
Hughes impressed again, but it wasn’t quite enough for the pole position. The rookie will be impressed with how he’s hit the ground running in the championship, having not started outside the top three this season.
Buemi claimed his first pole position since season 5 and the three championship points that come with it.
The first of the two races of the Diriyah doubleheader begins at 20:03 local time.
