Sebastien Buemi will line-up on pole position for the Formula E Mexico City E-Prix, defeating Taylor Barnard in the final after the Briton’s lap time was deleted.
The Swiss driver, who has partaken in every single FE race, fittingly took top spot for what is his and the sport’s 150th event, held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Both he and Barnard impressed all the way through the session, but the latter’s big slide on the final corner of his lap saw him lose the time, having exceeded track limits in the process.
Edoardo Mortara will start third, ahead of Mitch Evans, Nico Mueller and Dan Ticktum. Brazil winner Jake Dennis was seventh, with reigning champion Oliver Rowland eighth.
Da Costa, Cassidy, Vergne, Wehrlein all fail to progress in group stages
In Group A, Joel Eriksson was top with four minutes to go. But as things got towards the business end, the big names began to set the lap times tumbling. Dennis, Mueller, Mortara and Antonio da Costa held the top four with 90 seconds remaining, with both Citroens of Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne, de Vries and Taylor Barnard in the danger zone.
The final flurry then came with the chequered flag falling. Norman Nato failed to progress, with Dennis and da Costa unable to better their times, with Barnard taking third, bumping da Costa out. Cassidy was only seventh, with Vergne eighth.
Group B saw drivers similarly keeping their powder dry within the first few minutes, with Max Guenther changing tyres midway through, the same tactic deployed by his DS Penske team with Barnard in Group A.
With three-and-a-half minutes to go, push laps began. Ticktum daringly went through Turn 1 late on the brakes, narrowly avoiding the wall on the exit.
It would be a 1:06.538s for the Cupra Kiro driver, with Buemi going ahead shortly after. Evans and Rowland popped up into the top 10, with Wehrlein’s lap leaving him seventh with one more run left.
Ticktum repeated the same entry into Turn 1 again, and this time he was fully compromised, choosing to abort the lap.
Wehrlein could only better his time by one position, confirming an early exit. Rowland aborted his final run, with everyone failing to improve. This left Buemi, Ticktum, Evans and Rowland those to progress to the duels.
Porsche-powered cars continue to struggle in the duels
The first quarter-final pitted Barnard against Mueller, the Brit immediately putting himself under pressure with going deep into Turn 3.
Mueller was nearly two tenths ahead midway through the lap but an untidy middle sector saw the Swiss fail by a tenth, with Barnard making it through.
Mortara was up against Dennis in the second, and Mueller’s countryman was up on the Andretti straightaway, and despite valiantly edging closer towards the end of the lap, there was too much to make up, and Mortara went through.
Evans and Ticktum contested the third match-up, the Kiwi going first. Ticktum carefully made it through Turn 1 this time, and was just two thousandths off Evans after the first second, but was over a tenth behind in the second.
Evans crossed the line to set a 1:06.149s, but there was little in it by the end, with Ticktum storming back, but Evans made it through by just seven hundredth.
The final quarter-final placed reigning champion Rowland against Buemi. The pair were evenly matched until the final sector, when Buemi upped his game and went through by a tenth.
Mortara and Barnard regrouped to face each other in the first semi-final. The Mahindra looked mightily fast and committed, with Barnard narrowly missing the Turn 1 wall.
But the gap was cigarette paper thin early on, but the DS man fell back. It evened out towards the end of the lap, but Barnard snuck through to the final, but an immediate enquiry looked to see if he had exceeded track limits during the lap.
Evans against Buemi quickly followed, and the Jaguar went quicker in the early stages of the lap. But the Envision was edging ever closer towards the end of the lap, and a much better final sector saw him take a final spot by a tenth of a second. Barnard was confirmed to have kept one wheel on the track, ensuring his place in the final, seeking his third Formula E pole position.
Barnard loses pole with dramatic slide
It was the classic contrast: one of the Formula E elder statesmen against one of its quickest, youngest pretenders gunning for pole.
Buemi was first to start a flying lap, and once again Barnard oversteered at Turn 1, narrowly avoid the wall. But Barnard’s middle sector was cleaner, tidier and faster and was two tenths up towards the end of the lap.
Barnard looked set to storm to pole, but oversteering again, this time sliding massively on the exit. He took pole by a tenth, causing a swell of celebrations in the DS garage, but failed to see that, on this occasion, it was well and truly an exceeding of track limits on the exit, and the lap was swiftly deleted, handing Buemi pole.
Nobody seemed to realise however, as the team’s crew, led by Deputy Team Principal Phil Charles, celebrated, with Envision’s pit ruing their man’s defeat. After a few minutes, reality finally dawned on both squads, with the smiles broadening at Envision.
READ MORE – Formula E 2026 Mexico City E-Prix – Qualifying Results
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