Edoardo Mortara took a second consecutive Formula E pole for the second race in Saudi Arabia after he dominated the duels in a similar manner to yesterday’s qualifying.
Following a warm final practice session led by Jake Dennis, the field headed into qualifying for the second race of the Jeddah E‑Prix with pace spread tightly across multiple teams.
The previous day’s polesitter, Mortara, had shown strong speed again in the final practice, but the competitive order remained unclear, with Mitch Evans, Dan Ticktum, and Maximilian Guenther all within striking distance. Championship contender Pascal Wehrlein also remained firmly in contention after his victory in Race 1.
Teams entered qualifying expecting a far closer battle than the previous day, with track evolution, but hotter track conditions, and varying energy strategies set to play a decisive role in determining the grid for Race 2.
Groups – more surprising eliminations
Some drivers had something to make up for after the group stages in yesterday’s qualifying at the Jeddah E-Prix, including current world champion Oliver Rowland and Dan Ticktum in Group A.
Ticktum immediately set a fast lap time that was already quicker than Edo Mortara’s pole time – 1:17.335.
Jean-Eric Vergne, Wehrlein, and Norman Nato set times that would take them through to the duels.
Mortara produced another strong lap after his pole yesterday and jumped to the top of the timesheets with a 1:17.253.
99 thousandths separated the top four as the clock slowly ticked down for Group A.
At the last minute, everyone crossed the starting line once more to try to improve their times and possibly secure a ticket to the duels.
Moratara improved and cemented his 1st-place time in the group stage.
Nato missed out on advancing to the duels, and with his teammate and world champion Oliver Rowland in sight, things didn’t look too good for the Brit at first.
But he secured third place at the last moment, while Guenther jumped to second. Vergne was the last to advance to the duels.
Rookie Joel Eriksson, Ticktum, Evans, Taylor Barnard, and yesterday’s race winner, Wehrlein, were eliminated.
In Group B, information was immediately passed on that track evolution in Group A had been enormous and that most drivers had improved in the last lap.
When Group B started, the track temperature was also lower than before, 48 degrees Celsius.
After his first lap, Dennis complained about the tyres, saying he couldn’t get them up to temperature.
Before the final lap, Antonio Felix da Costa, Sebastien Buemi, Zane Maloney, and Dennis were initially in the positions for the duels.
But everyone was waiting to tackle the final fast lap and benefit from the track evolution.
Nick Cassidy was the first to start his final fast lap, but da Costa was the one who drove a purple sector in the first sector.
Cassidy’s lap initially put him in third place.
Surprisingly, none of the following drivers improved significantly, except for Dennis, who knocked Maloney out of the top four.
Da Costa, Dennis, Buemi and Cassidy advanced to the duels.
Maloney, Felipe Drugovich, Pepe Marti, Nico Mueller, Nyck de Vries, and Lucas Di Grassi were eliminated.
Duels – no room for error
The first quarter-final saw reigning world champion Rowland take on Guenther.
Rowland, who had enjoyed a rather devastating run of results in recent race weekends, was able to enjoy a good time and advance to the next duel.
Rowland took to the track ahead of Guenther. Rowland set a quick time and was able to extend his lead over Guenther in every sector. He finished his lap 0.220 seconds faster than Guenther.
Vergne versus Mortara was the second duel of the day. Vergne took the lead in his Citroen – could Mortara maintain his current qualifying form? In a direct comparison, Mortara also made up time in every sector and finished his lap 0.411 seconds faster than Vergne.
Buemi versus Dennis was the penultimate quarter-final of the day. Buemi set a faster time in sector 1, but Dennis was faster in sectors 2 and 3 – in fact, Dennis won this duel by a margin of 0.343 seconds, as Buemi lost time in the final chicane of the track.
Cassidy versus da Costa was the final quarter-final duel. Cassidy was the faster driver in the first two sectors, albeit only narrowly, but in sector 3, Cassidy lightly touched the wall and lost significant time to da Costa, with the Portuguese driver ultimately finishing 0.479 seconds faster.
The first semi-final was Rowland versus Mortara. This was only the second time the two drivers had faced each other, and Rowland had won their previous encounter in Tokyo in 2024. Rowland set the faster time in sector 1, but Mortara caught up in sectors 2 and 3 with his familiar consistency this weekend and finished the lap 0.344 seconds faster.
The battle for the last ticket to the final was a duel between da Costa and Dennis. Dennis set the fastest time in every sector, and his lap was actually even faster than Mortara’s benchmark before. Dennis’ time was 0.331 seconds faster than Da Costa’s.
The battle for pole position for the second race and three championship points at the Jeddah E-Prix was now open between Mortara and Dennis.
The track temperature continued to drop, which was particularly important for warming up the tyres.
Dennis was slightly faster in Sector 1, but Mortara countered with a faster time in Sector 2. Despite a small slip in Sector 3, Mortara took pole position with a 0.037-second lead.
Edoardo Mortara secured pole position for the second time this weekend and was now preparing for a better start than in yesterday’s race.
READ MORE – Formula E 2026 Jeddah E-Prix – Race 2 Qualifying Results
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