Oliver Rowland took his second pole positon of the Formula E Tokyo E-Prix weekend after Dan Ticktum crashed during their final qualifying duel.
The Cupra Kiro man looked set to take his first pole in FE, but a brush with the wall late on in the lap handed Rowland a further three points in the title race, and a first-place start in-front of Nissan’s home crowd.
Group A would see both Nissans, both Jaguars, both Lolas, Barnard and Race 1 winner Vandoorne all seeking to make it through.
With conditions dry after Race 1’s non-event of qualifying, di Grassi would be sitting pretty with just over two minutes to go when the red flags came out when Mitch Evans’ Jaguar clouted the wall on the exit of Turn 16.
The right rear wheel of the car took the brunt of the impact, coming free and overtaking the Kiwi as he slid harmlessly into an escape road barrier narrowly missing a marshal in the process.
A brief interlude would be followed by a final flurry of activity, with Evans’ team-mate Nick Cassidy going top, with Nato, Rowland, Vergne and Taylor Barnard all going through.
But with the chequered flag falling, di Grassi still had time for one more lap and blitzed his way back to the top of the pile with a 1:13.781s.
Nato, Rowland and Vergne would join him, with Barnard out, along with Vandoorne, the Belgian going from hero to zero having not been able to find a good enough laptime.
Group B saw the Porsche pair, Jake Dennis, Edoardo Mortara and the in-form Dan Ticktum all in with a chance of a duels appearance.
Robin Frijns initially help top spot, before da Costa and then Wehrlein occupied it, with Mortara then going quickest with five minutes to go.
Da Costa dropped out of the top four, then returned to it as Wehrlein went quicker than Mortara, with both Kiros teetering on progression as well.
Maximilian Guenther got himself into the top four with seconds go to, Bird briefly got himself into the duels, but was immediately dumped out by Ticktum, joining Wehrlein, Mortara and da Costa.
The session ended under yellow flags after Nico Mueller’s Andretti bounced over the chicane at Turn 10, and subsequently hit the wall on the exit of 11.
Nato and Mortara victims of the walls
The first duel pitted the two Nissans against each-other, with Rowland the first to complete a lap, a 1:12.375s, a relatively tidy lap but any doubt of losing out to his team-mate was eradicated by Nato clipping the wall at the same spot Mueller did, bending the front-right suspension.
Vergne and di Grassi, two of the great Formula E veterans, were placed together in the second duel. The Lola was mightily close to getting through, but Vergne just made it through with 1:12.681s, just seven hundredths ahead of the Brazilian.
The third duel placed Ticktum against Mortara, both men coming in off the back of a close battle in Race 1.
Ticktum’s Kiro understeered early on in his lap but held an early advantage by two tenths, and went further ahead by another two tenths, blasting to 1:12.173s, the quickest time of the day.
Mortara’s lap was compromised from the very start, the Mahindra tagging the wall on the exit of the final corner as he began his flying lap, but Ticktum’s superb and committed lap would have been hard to beat in any case.
The fourth and final quarter-final saw an all-Porsche matchup of da Costa and Wehrlein. The former went first and produced a scruffy and ragged lap, around eight tenths down on Ticktum’s lap, and six tenths behind Wehrlein, who cruised through to the semi-finals.
Rowland and Ticktum set-up all British final
With drivers now whittled down, the semi-finals began with Rowland against one-lap specialist Vergne.
After sector one, Rowland was aleady two tenths up, and towards the end of the lap, increased it by a further tenth, completing a 1:12.007s to guarantee a front row start.
Ticktum against Wehrlein was the second semi, and the Brit was a tenth up by the midway point of the lap, but Wehrlein clawed back some of the deficit towards the end of the lap.
A 1:12.028s would see Ticktum storm through by 0.161s, the Porsche customer team putting one over the works outfit, and ensuring an all-British battle for pole position..
Ticktum held the advantage early on, maintaining a tenth’s advantage, and seemingly looked good for his first-ever pole, but the Kiro clipped the wall at Turn 15 and slowed to a crawl.
Rowland overtook Ticktum on the start-finish straight to claim a fortuitous pole position, his second of the weekend.
Wehrlein, Vergne, Mortara and di Grassi made-up the second and third rows, with da Costa seventh, and Nato eighth.
The two McLarens of Barnard and Bird would round-up the top 10, with another race of high drama promised once again.
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