Oliver Rowland will start the second race of the Diriyah E-Prix from pole position, after defeating Robin Frijns in the Final at the Diriyah Street Circuit.
Rowland has boasted strong pace all weekend and finally put it to good use by securing his first pole since the Season 8 Seoul E-Prix. It was also the Nissan Formula E Team’s first pole since Cape Town last year. To get to the Final, Rowland defeated Nick Cassidy in the Semi-Finals, whilst Frijns beat Stoffel Vandoorne. Cassidy’s losing time was faster than Vandoorne’s, meaning the Kiwi will start third with Vandoorne in fourth.
Behind the top four, Jehan Daruvala will start from a career-high P5, following a sensational performance. Jake Hughes qualified in sixth, with Sacha Fenestraz and Jean-Éric Vergne in seventh and eighth. The big shock was that reigning World Champion and yesterday’s winner Jake Dennis, championship leader Pascal Wehrlein and Mitch Evans all failed to make the duels.
Dennis will start all the way down on the eighth row of the grid, whilst Evans will start on the seventh row and Wehrlein on the fifth. With this evening’s race being a lap shorter than yesterday’s, the trio will have their work cut out to score big points.
How qualifying unfolded
Group A
The opening group ahead of the second race of the weekend featured several drivers who have been fast in Diriyah, including yesterday’s pole sitter Vergne, Free Practice 3 pacesetter Evans and Free Practice 2’s quickest driver Norman Nato. Mexico City winner and championship leader Wehrlein was also in Group A.
By the halfway point in the group, it was Evans who sat fastest by two-tenths of a second, thanks to a 1m 11.276s – the fastest time on Friday was a 1m 11.399s. Behind Evans but in the all important top four were Frijns, Season 7 World Champion Nyck de Vries and Fenestraz. With the track continuing to evolve though, it was all set to change.
As each driver completed their final lap, there were several huge shocks, as Wehrlein, Evans, Maximilian Günther and Nato were all knocked out. Fenestraz topped the group with a 1m 10.641s, with Frijns, Vergne and Vandoorne joining him in the duels. Wehrlein will start from the fifth row of the grid, Günther the sixth and Evans the seventh.
Group B
Group B included yesterday’s winner Dennis and podium finisher Cassidy, as well as both Neom McLaren drivers who have been quick all weekend. Free Practice 1 leader Oliver Rowland was also in the second group, as well as Friday’s hero Sette Câmara. With five minutes remaining, Rowland topped the group by 0.063s ahead of Hughes, rookie Jehan Daruvala and Buemi.
It meant that Dennis and Cassidy were both outside the duel places at the time and needed a big lap in the closing minutes. Cassidy did just that and progressed into the duels in second, behind Rowland who remained at the top of the group. However, Dennis was shockingly knocked out after a red flag was flown.
Buemi completed his final hot lap and then crashed at Turn 1, meaning the likes of Dennis, Sam Bird and Sette Câmara weren’t able to complete their final lap and were all eliminated as a result. It all meant that joining Rowland and Cassidy in the duels were Hughes and Daruvala, in what was a spectacular moment for the Indian driver.
Quarter-Finals
Buemi’s crash resulted in the duels being delayed by quite some time; however, they eventually got underway. Interestingly, the duels didn’t feature a single Porsche-powered driver. The opening Quarter-Final saw Vergne against Frijns, with the Frenchman being the favourite to proceed. However, it was Frijns who progressed after going two-tenths faster than Vergne.
The next duel was Vandoorne against Fenestraz, with the Season 8 World Champion hoping to go further than his teammate. That’s exactly what the Belgian did, as he went half a second faster than Fenestraz, who made a mistake.
Quarter-Final number three was Cassidy against Hughes, in what was a tough one to predict. In the end, though, it was a demolition job by Cassidy, who defeated last year’s pole sitter with ease, courtesy of a 1m 10.385s which was six-tenths quicker than Hughes.
In the last duel of this stage, it was Daruvala and Rowland, with both drivers dreaming of a Semi-Final appearance. Daruvala’s time was actually very good on his first duel appearance, and would’ve been enough to beat Frijns in the opening duel. Sadly for the Maserati driver, Rowland set the quickest lap of the weekend at the time, a 1m 10.149s.
Semi-Finals
Onto the Semi-Finals, and the first two drivers preparing to do battle for a place in the Final were Frijns and Vandoorne. For Frijns, it was a great chance to secure his first Final appearance since his return to Envision Racing. Frijns made the most of the opportunity and defeated Vandoorne by two-tenths of a second, to progress to the final.
Hoping to meet Frijns in the final were Cassidy and Rowland, with the latter targeting Nissan’s first final appearance of Season 10. Through the first half of the lap and Rowland was quicker by almost two-tenths of a second; however, Cassidy had a great end to the lap. It wasn’t enough to defeat Rowland though, who set a phenomenal 1m 10.098s to make the final.
Final
So, the third final of Season 10 and the second of the weekend was Rowland against Frijns, with the Nissan driver being the clear favourite. All weekend, though, being the favourite hasn’t been ideal. Rowland was just over a tenth of a second faster than Frijns in the first half of a lap, before he extended that advantage with a mega second half of the lap.
Rowland went almost three-tenths of a second faster than Frijns, thanks to a brilliant 1m 10.055s – the fastest lap of the weekend. Claiming pole also secures Rowland three championship points, meaning Nissan are finally off the mark.
