Mitch Evans beat Sebastien Buemi to pole for the first race of the London E-Prix as championship leader Nick Cassidy failed to advance to the head-to-head Duels stage.
Evans’ Jaguar TCS Racing teammate went for a double push at the end of the first group session, and while two session best sectors were enough to momentarily bump him to fourth — and a position to advance — a messy final sector left him vulnerable. He failed to improve on his final flying lap, as Oliver Rowland (Nissan), Sebastien Buemi (Envision) and Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) made late vaults up the order.
In the Duels final, Buemi had the upper hand in the first sector, but a mistake at Turn 16 cost him time, giving Evans the advantage over the final two parts of the lap. Evans’ pole time was ultimately a 1m 10.622s, just 0.069s quicker than Buemi.
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En route to the final, Evans topped the second group session ahead of Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra), Norman Nato (Andretti), and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske). He defeated Vergne in the Duels quarter finals with a stunning lap that was 0.369s better than Vergne’s run. Evans then beat Nato, albeit with a lap six tenths slower than his one from the previous stage.
Buemi made the Duels for only the second time in the last 14 races, finishing second in the first group — which began in drying conditions after a brief morning shower — behind Wehrlein, with Rowland and his Envision Racing teammate Robin Frijns also advancing
In the Duels, Buemi defeated former teammate Rowland, and championship contender Pascal Wehrlein to lock himself into the Final for the first time since the season opener in Mexico.
Pole for Evans is his third of the season, matching both Vergne and Wehrlein. And with the three points that come with it, he narrowed the gap at the top of the championship to just nine points ahead of Saturday evening’s race.
Behind the front row of Evans and Buemi, Wehrlein will line up third with Nato fourth. Vergne will start fifth, ahead of Mueller, Rowland, and Robin Frijns (Envision), with Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche) and Jake Dennis (Andretti) rounding out the top 10.
Maximilian Guenther will line up 11th, ahead of Sam Bird, Sacha Fenestraz, Nyck de Vries, and Jehan Daruvala, with Edorado Mortara, Cassidy, Dan Ticktum, Lucas di Grassi, Stoffell Vandoorne, Jake Hughes — who had a brush with the wall in the first group session, hampering his progress — and Sergio Sette Camara completing the field.
Sette Camara will start last after accumulating 30 places of grid penalties. The ERT driver got a 10-place drop after second practice for his third reprimand of the season, then got a further 20-place drop for a change of inverter ahead of qualifying.