Oliver Rowland flew to a third Formula E pole position in the penultimate race of Season 6 in what was a chaotic qualifying session in Berlin.
The five-part classification window commenced with four runners in Group 1 failing to set a time, as Jean-Eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi, Sebastien Buemi and recently crowned champion Antonio Felix da Costa failed to start their initial qualifying runs, commencing their hot laps after the session had ended.
This placed an immediate unknown in the session and ensured a mixed-up order, with Audi rookie Rene Rast topping the group stages after launching his efforts from Group 4.
Rowland, meanwhile, scraped through to Super Pole from Group 2 and was the third runner in the final part of qualifying.
The Nissan e.dams driver deposed Neel Jani from the provisional pole spot by 0.097s with a 1:15.955s run and for the remainder of qualifying, was unchallenged.
Robin Frijns came the closest to beating the Briton, only 0.049s down to secure second on the grid for the 10th race of the 2019/20 campaign.
Jani, meanwhile, held on to secure third on the grid for Porsche, with Rast slotting into fourth overall after falling 0.172s shy of Rowland’s pole position efforts.
Alex Lynn was fifth for Mahindra after emerging as the second-fastest runner in the group stages while Tom Blomqvist – who today makes his debut for Jaguar Racing – took sixth.
Outside of the top six, Andre Lotterer secured seventh in the second Porsche while Felipe Massa fronted ROKiT Venturi Racing’s efforts by cementing eighth on the grid.
Sergio Sette Camara put in an impressive performance from Group 4 to take ninth for GEOX Dragon while team-mate Nico Muller secured 11th. Edoardo Mortara split the American outfit’s efforts in the second Venturi by taking 10th.
At the half-way point in the field was Oliver Turvey who slotted into 12th for NIO 333, with the Briton outpacing BMW’s Maximilian Guenther who emerged as the lead BMW in 13th.
Formula E’s four active champions – di Grassi, da Costa, Buemi and Vergne – will start from 21st to 24th following their Group 1 blunder.
