British driver Jake Dennis has secured his maiden Formula E pole position after track evolution made all the difference in Qualifying.
On another damp day in Valencia, Formula E returned for the second round of the championship’s doubleheader weekend at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit.
After the unbelievably bizarre scenes of yesterday’s race which saw only nine drivers classified, many were searching for redemption in qualifying for round six.
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QUALIFYING SESSION FOR ROUND SIX
Qualifying group one went out in the slippiest of conditions with all drivers opting to complete two outlaps. With rapidly developing track conditions it appeared unlikely that any of the six would set a laptime competitive enough to make it into superpole.
As the drivers crossed the line a huge split emerged between the six with Wehlrein fastest setting a time of 1:33.7 whilst Bird was slowest of the group. Yesterday’s victors Mercedes didn’t perform as well as anticipated and struggled to set a competitive lap time. Both Vandoorne and De Vries will start today’s race from the lower half of the grid.
Group two also opted to head out early with Vergne leading the pack. Da Costa lost six tenths to his teammate in the final sector with Vergne going comfortably clear of Alexander Sims in second. Da Costa’s error proved costly with the Portugese driver missing out on superpole contention.
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In group three, Cassidy had a stunning first sector and retained this staggering pace into sector two. Unfortunately Cassidy’s lap was ruined after losing two seconds in the final sector as the Brit ran wide. The remaining drivers in the group (with the exception of Lucas Di Grassi) made it into the top six with the track becoming drier.
After the session, Nick Cassidy was placed under investigation by the FIA Stewards. This investigation was due to a track limits infringement at turn 12.
With the sun shining through and the track conditions rapidly drying up, all six drivers in group four looked set to be in superpole. In the early sectors, all six were easily up on the time set by Vergne and by the end of the laps, all six drivers were over 1.3 seconds ahead of Vergne’s group two time.
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BATTLE FOR SUPERPOLE
Nato was the first driver out to set his time for superpole. After a clean opening sector, the Frenchman nearly found himself in the gravel at turn 5 after pushing his Venturi to its limit. Nato set a time of 1:30.489 after an impressive second and third sector. Speaking on the team radio, Nato stated that he had little chance of retaining pole due to the track’s rapid evolution.
The two Nio 333 cars of Turvey and Blomqvist came out next. Turvey beat Nato’s time in sector one but was two tenths down in sector two however the Brit found time in sector three moving eight hundreds ahead of the time set by the Frenchman.
Blomqvist started his lap with a big slide of the rear but this didn’t stop him going quickest of anyone in sector one, trying a tighter line than both Turvey and Nato. Blomqvist’s time of 1:30.2 was enough to put him on provisional pole with only three drivers remaining.
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Alex Lynn in the Mahindra went purple in all three sectors going comfortably clear of the two Nio’s and the Venturi.
The penultimate driver of the session Andre Lotterer was purple in sector one but down in sector two after locking up into turn nine. However, the Porsche driver managed to pull back pace in sector three to put him into contention for pole. Lotterer will take a three place grid drop for today’s race race after his involvement in yesterday’s early lap shunt.
Dennis, who had set the fastest time of group qualifying, appeared on track for his maiden pole position with a strong first sector. By sector two the British driver was seven tenths up on the time set by Andre Lotterer, retaining this significant pace into the final third of the lap. Crossing the line, Dennis achieved his maiden pole position by over eight tenths.
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With drier conditions for the race expected and several championship contenders starting out of place, this race looks set to be a classic!
Follow Overtake Motorsport for coverage this afternoon.
CLASSIFICATION
J. Dennis BMW I Andretti Motorsport
A. Lotterer Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team
A. Lynn Mahindra Racing
T. Blomqvist NIO 333 FE Team
O. Turvey NIO 333 FE Team
N. Nato ROKIT Venturi Racing
J.E Vergne DS Techeetah
O. Rowland Nissan E Dams
S. Buemi Nissan E Dams
S.S Camara Dragon/Penske Autosport
Featured Image Credit: @BMWMotorsport
