Lucas di Grassi secured his first pole position of his FOrmula E career to steal back some ground from title protagonist Sebastien Buemi, in a closely-fought session against the aforementioned and Jean-Eric Vergne.
The Brazilian driver finished 3rd in Group 2 and so progressed to the Super Pole session where he set a 1:09.404 lap time around the 12 turn, 2.480km Circuito de Puerto Madero.
Di Grassi’s 200kw pole lap was faster than Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne by 0.194 tenths and will therefore will start ahead of the Frenchman on the front row for this afternoon’s ePrix.
Sebastien Buemi lost 0.5seconds through Sector 1 and so returned 3rd place in the highest classified Renault e.dams.
Britain’s Oliver Turvey ended the running in P4. A lack of grip through T7 resulted in a costly lock-up and missed apex for the #8 NextEV.
The first man to run in Super Pole, Piquet’s locking front tyres lost him close to 0.5 of a second and the wayward rear balance of the car required him to save a half-spin. A dramatic but slow effort saw the series’
inaugural champion qualify P5.
The Group Stages:
Group 1 saw DS Virgin’s Sam Bird out onto the track first. But an effort described by the Brit over team radio as a “really scrappy lap” saw him finish the group 3 tenths down on Jaguar’s Mitch Evans who topped the group. Frijns finished the heat
third fastest ahead of the second Jaguar of Carroll and Maro Engel whose Venturi stopped twice during the session owing to a technical fault.
A 1:09.00 circuit initially placed reigning series champion Buemi 1st. However Vergne in the Techeetah, running the same Renault e.dams powertrain, was last across the line and took a 0.267 advantage to go
quickest overall. Di Grassi finished the session in 3rd, ahead of Piquet. Jerome D’Ambrosio was the only man in Group 2 not to make it into the provisional Super Pole knockout places- he finished the session in 6th.
In Group 3, Season 1 Bueno Aires race winner Da Costa stopped on the racing line at the exit of T1 and so brought out the Yellow Flag. The remaining drivers were on their 170kw out lap and so the session was unaffected. As the tracked resumed to Green, home man Lopez was fastest through Sector 1, but masses of oversteer through T7 saw him hit the wall and subsequently he buckled the rear right corner of the Andretti.
He managed to finish the lap in P14, but stopping further down the track brought out the Red Flag. Race Control granted Da Costa the chance to go out once more with the track to himself, but clouting the front right suspension on the inside wall of the chicane ended his chances. He pulled into the pits without setting a representative time. Rosenqvist admitted he was overdriving and so slotted into P6, with Sarrazin 9th and Duval 11th.
Group 4 was a messy affair. Abt and Ma Qing Ha both smashed into the barriers on the exit of Turn 4 effectively ending any chances of setting a competitive time. Turvey out performed team mate Piquet to put Next EV into 4th and 5th. Prost lost out in 6th as the final pre-Super Pole session relegated Mitch Evans to 7th; but still returned Jaguar’s first top ten qualification of their Formula E campaign. Heidfeld ended the running in 12th place.