DS Virgin Racing grabbed their first pole in Formula E so far, with Sam Bird the man on pole position ahead of Frenchman Nico Prost. The championship leader Sebastien Buemi spun early on his first qualifying lap, and will have to start the race behind everyone else.
Like the practice sessions, there were multiple mistakes made by drivers. Both Bruno Senna and Salvador Duran hit the wall on their qualifying runs, and Robert Frijns in the same qualifying run broke off a small part of his front wing. It should make for an entertaining race in Buenos Aires.
Group One
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
Mike Conway, Venturi
Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing
Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing
Sam Bird went out first, with Jean-Eric Vergne driving the car for the first time today after being ill.
The Brit finished the group in second, saying in an interview afterwards that the third sector was slower for him. Stephane Sarrazin in the Venturi car was the quickest in his group, and his time was not beaten in the other three groups.
Mike Conway in his first Formula E qualifying session finished in third, which was also good enough to get into the Super Pole group. Nick Heidfeld for Mahindra Racing was over one second off Sarrazin’s time, hile Vergne was the slowest of the five drivers.
Group Two
Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
Nico Prost, Renault e.dams
Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams
Simona de Silvestro, Andretti Formula E
Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
The two team-mates at Renault e.dams, Sebastien Buemi and Nico Prost, were the first drivers out. Loic Duval did pass Buemi on the first lap around however.
The Swiss driver was quicker than Sarrazin in the first two sectors, but spun in the third sector after locking up the brakes. Prost did a better job, finishing top of his group but approximately 0.2 seconds behind Venturi’s Sarrazin.
After passing Buemi, Duval lost a lot of time in the first sector, although his first lap time was good enough to keep him in sixth at that period in qualifying. Simona De Silvestro was at least 1.2 seconds off the fastest lap, while Daniel Abt was also not quick enough to be able to go further.
Group Three
Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV TCR
Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing
Robin Frijns, Andretti Formula E
Salvador Duran, Team Aguri
Robert Frijns for the Andretti team was first out on track, and he was followed by last years Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr.
Unsurprisingly Frijns and the other drivers were quicker than Buemi on their slower qualifying lap. The Dutch driver locked his brakes more than once, and broke a bit of his wing late into his lap, although was quick enough to place fifth.
The main drama involved Bruno Senna and Salvador Duran, who both went into the wall at different points in the track. Senna was the quickest driver in sector one, although he hit the wall hard at the same chicane Frijns damaged his wing. Duran locked up and went into the wall at turn four, however both drivers set quicker laps than Buemi. The red flag came out to clear up the two cars, although everyone had finished their qualifying attempt.
Group Four
Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing
Lucas di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR
The first out in the final qualifying group was Jerome D’Ambrosio, with Lucas di Grassi not too far behind. The Brazilian had to slow down slightly on the warm up lap to give himself some more room.
The last group were cleaner on track, with D’Ambrosio and di Grassi close in terms of lap times. After the second sector D’Ambrosio was slightly quicker out of the two, although was only able to finish in tenth. Di Grassi finished in seventh, narrowly missing out on going into the SuperPole group.
Oliver Turvey finished his lap afterwards, and will start just behind D’Ambrosio. The big surprise of the group was Team Aguri’s Antonio Felix da Costa, who set a time good enough for second place.
Super Pole
4th – Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
5th – Mike Conway, Venturi
3rd – Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
2nd – Nico Prost, Renault e.dams
1st – Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
In his first Formula E round, Mike Conway was the first driver out in the Super Pole group. The Brit locked up in his warm up lap, and went wide in turn one, making his tyres dirty. Conway had some more issues on his lap, including oversteering out of turn six. Even though it wasn’t a good lap, he will still be starting in fifth position for his first race.
Sam Bird, the second Brit in the Super Pole group, went out straight after. While he also locked up a couple times on his lap, he was unsurprisingly quicker than Conway. In the first sector Bird was 1.1 seconds faster, and he extended this margin in the second sector by over three tenths. He ended with a lap time of 1:09.420, which by the end of the session proved to be quick enough to get DS Virgin Racing’s first pole position in Formula E.
Renault’s Nico Prost was the third driver out in what is arguably the best car this season. While he didn’t make as many obvious mistakes on the track, he was slower in the first two sectors compared to Sam Bird, and finished his qualifying session with a 1:09.751. For the race he will start on the front row.
Antonio Felix da Costa for Team Aguri was on track next, and ended up being very close to the lap time set by Prost. Although he went slightly wide in one of the second sector corners, he took a cleaner line through the final chicane compared to Prost and Bird. Da Costa was 0.01 slower than the Frenchman however, narrowly missing out on starting next to the DS Virgin Racing driver.
Stephane Sarrazin was the last driver out on track for Venturi, and he wasn’t able to challenge the top three drivers in the group. He made a few mistakes on his last lap of qualifying, and finished with a 1:10.298. This puts him on the second row of the grid for the race, ahead of his new team-mate.
