Pascal Wehrlein claimed pole for the Formula E season opener in Sao Paulo, edging Nissan’s Oliver Rowland by 0.099s in the final of the head-to-head Duels.
The TAG Heuer Porsche driver began his lap marginally quicker than Rowland but ultimately ended the first second 0.180s adrift. However, he was quicker in the second and third sectors to take his seventh career pole, and his second consecutive pole on the streets of Sao Paulo.
En route to the final Wehrlein topped the second group in the opening part of qualifying ahead of Edoardo Mortara, Maximilian Guenther and Norman Nato, before defeating Nato and Guenther in his first two Duels.
Rowland, meanwhile, finished third in the first group, behind Jake Dennis and Antonio Felix da Costa, then beat da Costa in his first Duel, capitalizing on a stronger first sector to narrowly beat the Porsche man by 0.060s.
The margin was even finer in his semifinal, with him beating Dennis by 0.001s. Again he was only quicker in the first sector, the Andretti driver making a small mistake in the first corner, but Dennis’ stronger second and third sectors weren’t enough to see him through.
Despite taking pole, Wehrlein said ahead of qualifying that he doesn’t expect pole to provide much of an advantage, with the Sao Paulo circuit being an energy-sensitive one, leading to drivers needing to conserve energy – starting with around 50 percent of the amount they need to complete the race flat-out – to make it to the end.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1394]
Behind Wehrlein and Rowland, Dennis will line up third, alongside Guenther, with da Costa, Nato, Mortara, and Vergne completing the order of the drivers that advanced to the Duels.
Stoffel Vandoorne will start ninth ahead of Nick Cassidy – who made a mistake at Turn 7 on his fastest lap then, along with everyone else in Group A, failed to improve on his final push lap – Dan Ticktum, and the Envision Racing pair of Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns, with Lucas di Grassi starting his home race in 14th, Nico Mueller 15th, and NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard 16th and 17th respectively.
Zane Maloney, David Beckmann, Nyck de Vries, and Mitch Evans complete the field.
Evans will start at the back of the grid after failing to set a time in the second group session. He stopped on track at Turn 11 – as he did in Friday practice – with a brake system error. The problem was unrelated to his Friday issue, which down to his drivetrain and was replaced prior to Saturday running.