Dragon Racing were able to lock out the front row for the Punta del Este ePrix, with Jerome D’Ambrosio grabbing his first pole position in Formula E ahead of Loic Duval. This was after both championship leader Lucas di Grassi and Putrajaya pole sitter Sebastien Buemi both making mistakes on their attempts.
There weren’t many mistakes during the first set of qualifying sessions, except for Nicolas Prost slightly damaging his front wing and Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve crashing into the barriers in Group 4.
Group One
Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing
Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV
Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV
Nathanael Berthon, Team Aguri
Both the NEXTEV drivers went out first in group one, while Nathanael Berthon followed them not long after. Jean-Eric Vergne and DS Virgin Racing decided to stay in and only go out for one lap.
Nelson Piquet Jr and Oliver Turvey were both racing each other for the fastest time through the three laps they put in. Turvey finished 0.15 seconds ahead of his teammate, putting him top of the group. Berthon was a second slower, while Vergne messed up early into his final lap by having to go straight on at one of the chicanes.
Before he finished the lap, Vergne was very close to rear-ending Berthon, with the Frenchman driving slower after already finishing his lap.
Group Two
Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.Dams
Robin Frijns, Andretti
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler
Nicolas Prost for Renault e.Dams went out on track first, followed by Jerome D’Ambrosio, and Lucas di Grassi.
On his flying lap, Prost went 0.14 seconds quicker in the first sector compared to Turvey, however his wing was damaged by a bollard. He was still quick enough to finish ahead of Turvey with a 1:15.91.
The next two times from the Swiss and the Brazilian were improvements, with the Dragon Racing driver going quicker than Prost with a 1:15.48. Not long after this, Di Grassi beat that by over three tenths. Neither Robert Frijns or Sam Bird were able to beat this time, although the Brit was able to get a 1:15.7 lap time to finish ahead of Prost.
Group Three
Daniel Abt, Abt Schaeffler
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
Oliver Rowland, Mahindra
All the drivers in Group Three were from different teams, with Loic Duval being the first man out of them all to go out.
Driving in his first qualifying session at Punta del Este, he was able to go third quickest to go slightly ahead of Bird. He was the only one of the group who could make the top 5, with Daniel Abt just missing out by 0.08 seconds and finishing sixth.
Neither Antonio Felix da Costa or Stephane Sarrazin were able to get into the 1:15 times, finishing seventh and 11th respectively. Oliver Rowland in his first Formula E event after replacing the injured Nick Heidfeld, had to settle for 13th after making a mistake near the end of the lap.
Group Four
Bruno Senna, Mahindra
Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams
Jacques Villeneuve, Venturi
Simona de Silvestro, Andretti
Putrajaya pole sitter Sebastien Buemi wanted to be the first driver out in the final qualifying group, with Bruno Senna for Mahindra not too far behind.
Showing that he is again a qualifying contender, Buemi went quickest in each sector and went ahead of Di Grassi with a 1:15.01, narrowly missing out on getting into the 1:14s. Senna was only able to achieve a 1:16.048, which puts him in ninth position for the race.
Venturi driver Jacques Villeneuve made a mistake at turn one, and later into his flying lap went into the wall, the only driver to do so during qualifying. This brought out the yellow flags which affected Simona de Silvestro behind him, who has to now start the race in 15th.
Super Pole
5th – Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams
4th – Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler
3rd – Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
2nd – Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
1st – Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing
In the last qualifying session of the day, Sam Bird in the DS Virgin Racing car was the first to set a lap. The Brit locked his rears going into the first turn but overall didn’t any other problems on his last attempt. He was able to get a 1:16.1, which was good enough to tie for his best qualifying result in Formula E.
Loic Duval was the first of two Dragon Racing drivers out, and like Bird never had qualified on the front row before this race. Both his first and second sector times were quicker than Bird, and while the Frenchman lost some time in the final sector he was still able to go over two-tenths quicker than the Brit.
The second Dragon Racing car went out after, with Jerome D’Ambrosio in the hot seat. Like Bird, he locked up slightly early on in his lap, although was still able to go slightly faster than his team-mate in the first sector. He improved in each sector over Duval, and the Belgian finished his qualifying attempt with a 1:15.498.
It was then time for the winner of last race, Lucas di Grassi, to put in his lap. Early on he made a mistake, going over a set of curbs fairly heavily. That put him in a position that meant the Brazilian wasn’t able to compete for the pole position, and he ended his Punta del Este qualifying behind the DS Virgin Racing car.
Only Sebastien Buemi could stop the Dragon Racing team from achieving a front row lockout, and after picking up pole position in the first two rounds of the season he was the most likely to do so. However, he was a quarter second down on D’ambrosio’s first sector time, and the Swiss driver ended up making an even bigger mistake than Di Grassi by locking up and missing the corner. While he will still start the race in fifth position, the Renault e.Dams driver will be disappointed with how his qualifying went.
