Sebastien Buemi was dominant again in qualifying for the Putrajaya ePrix, while his team-mate Nicolas Prost could only obtain fifth place during SuperPole after a final lap full of problems. Stephane Sarrazin joined Buemi on the front row of the grid for the race.
There weren’t many issues in qualifying from the drivers, other than Lucas Di Grassi and Sam Bird both hitting the wall during their fast laps. The SuperPole was plagued by the five drivers locking up going into the first chicane, while last years champion Nelson Piquet Jr starts only third from the back of the grid.
Group One
Bruno Senna, Mahindra
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams
Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra
Renault e.Dams’ Nicolas Prost was first out on the track, with Loic Duval in the Dragon Racing car not too far behind him. The two Mahindra drivers were out a bit later.
After a simple warm up lap, Nicolas Prost had some difficulties with his fast lap, hitting the curbs of the first few turns fairly hard. The Frenchman kept clean with the rest of his lap, setting the benchmark of 1:20.4 seconds. Duval behind him kept it simple, going 0.15 seconds quicker than Prost, although he said afterwards that he wasn’t too happy with his lap. Bruno Senna didn’t improve on the times set before him, and while his team-mate Nick Heidfeld was close in the first two sectors, he ended up finishing last in the group with a 1:20.7.
Group Two
Robin Frijns, Andretti
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams
Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler
Championship leader Sebastien Buemi was first out for the second qualifying group, closely followed by Lucas Di Grassi in the Abt Schaeffler car, close enough that the Brazilian had to back off on the first lap to get a bigger gap.
Buemi and Di Grassi were exchanging fastest sector times to start off with. In the first sector the Swiss driver went 0.25 seconds quicker than Duval at that point, and Di Grassi went even quicker. By the second sector Di Grassi was 0.4 seconds quicker and Buemi 0.3, but it went wrong for the Brazilian when he hit the wall in the final sector. While Buemi was able to go quicker, Di Grassi found himself in fifth by the end of the lap, with Da Costa narrowly beating him to fourth.
Robin Frijns for Andretti had a time quick enough for sixth at that point in qualifying, beating the two Mahindra Racing cars. He mentioned before qualifying begun that he was less comfortable on the 200kw run compared to at race pace.
Group Three
Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV
Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
Nathanael Berthon, Team Aguri
Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
The defending champion Piquet Jr went out first ahead of the two DS Virgin cars. It was the first group with five drivers after the Trulli team failed scrutineering checks the day beforehand.
Both Piquet Jr and Vergne found themselves losing time on the fastest lap by the first sector, while the Frenchman’s team-mate Sam Bird hit the wall coming out of turn three. For all three drivers qualifying didn’t go to plan with Brazilian finding himself in 9th after his lap and the two DS Virgin Racing drivers finishing 10th and 11th by the end of Q3. While this was happening, Stephane Sarrazin surprised everyone by setting the second quickest time overall, and Berthon finished ahead of Piquet Jr for 12th place.
Group Four
Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing
Daniel Abt, Abt Schaeffler
Simona de Silvestro, Andretti
Jacques Villeneuve, Venturi
Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV
Group Four was mixed, with five drivers from different teams. Formula 1 World Champion Villeneuve had limited running in the practice session after running into issues, so was going out with a disadvantage compared to the other drivers in the group.
D’Ambrosio led the four, getting close to quickest time in qualifying through the first two sectors, however at the end of his lap he only managed to get 7th place. He ended up being the quickest driver in the last qualifying group, with Abt going tenth quickest and Turvey going even slower than his team-mate Piquet Jr with a time only good for 16th. Silvestro for the Andretti team was slower than anyone else in qualifying, while Jacques Villeneuve finished off Q4 in 12th place.
SuperPole
5th – Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
4th – Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams
3rd – Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
2nd – Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
1st – Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams
After holding onto to a place in the SuperPole group, Da Costa went out first on the track. Unlike in the qualifying groups, he had one lap to set a time, and he started it off locking up going into the first chicane. He missed the apex going into turn five, but overall was pushing the car throughout the lap. The Portuguese driver crossed over the finished line with a 1:20.97, slower than the top ten earlier in qualifying but quick enough for fourth place after everyone else finished their attempts.
Nicolas Prost in the fast Renault e.Dams car was the second driver out. Prost’s lap was plagued by oversteer, with the driver commenting after he was out of the car that it felt that something was wrong with the car itself. He will be disappointed with his lap, only being able to achieve a 1:21.7. He will be hoping that the car is better to drive for the race itself.
Next out is Loic Duval for Dragon Racing. He had an even bigger lock-up going into the first chicane than Da Costa, but found himself quicker by the end of the second sector than the Portuguese driver. While his lap was fairly tidy except the hairpin sector, the Frenchman finished his qualifying ahead of Da Costa by less than a tenth.
Sarrazin was surprisingly quick in the third qualifying group, and was quick on his last lap attempt too. He was one of the only drivers to not have any problems going into the first corner, but even so he was down by 0.15 seconds over Duval in the first sector. By the end of the second sector though, the two French drivers were on identical lap times, but Sarrazin made sure that he was starting on the front row of the grid with a 1:20.6, nearly a quarter of a second faster than Duval in third.
Sebastien Buemi, the fastest in qualifying in Beijing, was the last out and like most of the drivers previously locked up going into the chicane. This didn’t too much, after the fast Swiss in the powerful Renault e.Dams car were 0.25 seconds faster in the first sector than Sarrazin. He lost time during the second sector, missing the apex of turn five, but by the end of the final lap in qualifying Buemi was four-tenths quicker and grabbed his second pole position this season.
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