Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Mexico City Formula E: Rosenqvist cuts Vergne's lead with pole

Formula E title hopeful Felix Rosenqvist claimed pole position for Saturday's Mexico City race, cutting Jean-Eric Vergne's championship lead to just two points in the process

Rosenqvist was narrowly headed by Sebastien Buemi in the group stage of qualifying but pumped in an expert superpole lap to deny Antonio Felix da Costa a first FE pole.

After an unspectacular pair of practice sessions Renault e.dams driver Buemi was fractionally fastest in the group stage of qualifying, beating Rosenqvist by just 0.008 seconds.

But Buemi, who ran last in the superpole, locked up at the start of a scruffy shootout lap and wound up slowest of the five contenders.

That confirmed Rosenqvist's fifth FE pole, banking the Mahindra driver three points in the process.

Rosenqvist's 1m01.645s was two tenths quicker than da Costa, who was making his first superpole appearance since the Long Beach round two years ago.

However, da Costa was underweight and had his time removed from the superpole - he will be allowed to start last of the superpole runners.

That will be fourth after Lynn recovered from a heavy crash in final practice to qualify third-fastest, but a 10-place grid penalty for the DS Virgin Racing driver's pre-event gearbox change drops him back.

It means NIO's Oliver Turvey and Buemi will start second and third.

That penalty also promotes Daniel Abt to fifth place, after the Audi Sport Abt driver was the quickest of those to miss out on the superpole.

Within a tenth of Abt were championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne and Nelson Piquet Jr, while Sam Bird and Nick Heidfeld completed the top 10.

Bird, like team-mate Lynn, has a grid penalty though, so he will drop 10 places - as will beleaguered reigning champion Lucas di Grassi.

Audi driver di Grassi knew he would take a grid penalty coming to Mexico after another inverter change following his retirement in Santiago, and qualifying in the opening group meant the worst of the track conditions.

Di Grassi was only 12th fastest overall and will drop to the back, and likely take a small time penalty in the race as he is not serving his full grid penalty.

That trio of penalties means Maro Engel, who only qualified 13th, will start 10th.

Starting grid

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m01.645s -
2 Oliver Turvey NIO NextEV NIO 1m02.172s 0.527s
3 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m02.510s 0.865s
4 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti - -
5 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m01.885s -
6 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m01.962s -
7 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 1m01.964s -
8 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m02.023s -
9 Andre Lotterer Techeetah Renault 1m02.057s -
10 Alex Lynn Virgin DS Virgin 1m02.014s -
11 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m02.091s -
12 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m02.135s -
13 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 1m02.264s -
14 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m02.360s -
15 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m02.377s -
16 Tom Blomqvist Andretti Andretti 1m02.443s -
17 Luca Filippi NIO NextEV NIO 1m02.508s -
18 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 1m03.416s -
19 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m02.007s -
20 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m02.079s -

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Mexico City Formula E: Lucas di Grassi leads practice for Audi
Next article Mexico City Formula E: Daniel Abt takes breakthrough win for Audi

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe