Sam Bird grabs pole position for the inaugural Paris ePrix, beating out the Driver’s Championship leader Lucas di Grassi.

It was his third pole position of the season, in a session that was relatively free of drama except for a collision between Nick Heidfeld and Mike Conway in the first group. Championship contender Sebastien Buemi had another bad qualifying session, and will start eighth in the race.

Group One

Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi

Loic Duval, Dragon Racing

Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams

Mike Conway, Venturi

Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing

Sebastien Buemi was the first driver out on track for qualifying. Loic Duval was next, and on his warm up he locked up going into Turn 8, and then into Turn 1 at the start of his lap.

Buemi was able to get a 1m02.661 lap. Both Nick Heidfeld and Mike Conway were faster, but Heidfeld spun going into the last section of the lap and ended up collecting Conway, which brought out a red flag. The session was extended by a minute, with Buemi already putting his one lap in, and Heidfeld not allowed after causing the stoppage.

Only Duval and Stephane Sarrazin went back on track, as Conway’s second car was not ready. Duval was only able to get third, as Sarrazin went just over half a second quicker than Buemi.

Formula E

Group Two

Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV TCR

Lucas di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing

Robin Frijns, Andretti Formula E

Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

On his flying lap, Lucas di Grassi was around 0.25 seconds down on the time set by Sarrazin. He was able to put a time in good enough for second, but was dropped to third by Jean-Eric Vergne who set a 1m01.770 lap to go quickest.

Daniel Abt went fourth after his flying lap, but ended seventh after everyone was done. Nelson Piquet Jr was able to go sixth, while Robin Frijns snuck into the top five with a 1m02.405.

Group Three

Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing

Nico Prost, Renault e.dams

Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing

Simona de Silvestro, Andretti Formula E

Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR

Jerome D’Ambrosio was quick to leave the pits, and was followed closely by Renault e.dams driver Nico Prost.

D’Ambrosio was just over 0.1 seconds down on the fastest time in the first sector, but after a slower second sector and a lockup in the third, his 1m02.797 lap puts him in ninth.

Nico Prost was able to go fourth to out-qualify his teammate Buemi, while Oliver Turvey for NEXTEV put in a great lap to go sixth. Simona de Silvestro finished the group in tenth with a 1m02.888, while Bruno Senna was not too far behind in 11th.

Group Four

Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing

Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri

Ma Qing Hua, Team Aguri

Only three drivers take part of the last qualifying group, including the debut driver for Team Aguri Ma Qing Hua.

Sam Bird was faster than his teammate Vergne in both the first and second sector, and went fastest out of everyone with a 1m01.514, a quarter of a second faster than Vergne. Antonio Felix da Costa will have to start tenth, while Ma will start 15th after a 1m03.655 lap.

Formula E

Super Pole

Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing

Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing

Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi

Lucas di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

Nico Prost, Renault e.dams

Nico Prost was the first driver on track for his Super Pole lap, knowing that he had already done a better job than his teammate Buemi in qualifying. He set the benchmark at 1m02.709, which turned out to be fairly slow in comparison.

Lucas di Grassi was out next. While he locked his brakes going into one of the corners, and missed an apex in the second sector, he was the first driver to go into the 1m01’s to get provisional pole.

The third driver out was Stephane Sarrazin in the Venturi car. He was 0.4 seconds down in the first sector, but made up a bit of time in the second sector. He was one of two drivers to not get into the 1m01’s though, and will have to settle for fourth.

Jean-Eric Vergne was next, and like Sarrazin he was down on time in the first sector but made up time in the second sector. He also made time in the final part of the lap to set a 1m01.993 lap, only 0.05 seconds slower than di Grassi.

The last driver to set a lap was Sam Bird, and while he was 0.15 seconds down to start off with, his second and third sector times were brilliant. His lap time was 1m01.616, which was more than good enough to grab pole position for the inaugural Paris ePrix.