Audi’s Lucas Di Grassi claimed provisional pole position by over 0.5 seconds over Sebastien Buemi in superpole ahead of the third race of the Formula E season in Santiago.

After being second fastest in his qualifying group to Buemi, Di Grassi went quickest in all three sectors to top the timings by 0.668s over his team-mate Daniel Abt, who at the time was first.

However he is currently under investigation which threatens his qualifying result.

Buemi was only able to go second fastest on the next qualifying attempt in superpole, but will start alongside Di Grassi on the front row.

Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein was the last driver to set his lap after going quickest overall during the first part of qualifying, but after a promising first sector started to lose time after brushing the wall later in his lap.

The lap was still quick enough to put Wehrlein in third place for his second FE race, beating Abt’s time earlier in the session by 0.033s.

HWA’s Stoffel Vandoorne was fifth fastest, however the Belgian is also under investigation for a violation during superpole. Virgin’s Sam Bird will start the race from sixth if qualifying results stay the same.

Edoardo Mortara just missed out on superpole after dropping from fifth to seventh after both Wehrlein and Vandoorne improved after his lap during the final qualifying group.

He will start alongside Dragon’s Maximilian Gunther, who was in the bottom four at the end of both practice sessions earlier in the day.

His team-mate and FE drivers’ championship leader Jerome D’Ambrosio will have a more difficult challenge ahead of him after finishing qualifying down in 21st, with Tom Dillmann the only driver who was slower.

Neither him or the other five drivers in group one were faster than any of the drivers in the next group. Jean-Eric Vergne was the best of the group but will start in 13th, with his Techeetah team-mate Andre Lotterer behind him in 15th alongside Nissan’s Oliver Rowland, who set his lap during the third session.

Robin Frijns will start alongside Lotterer in 16th, while Vandoorne’s HWA team-mate Gary Paffett went 17th fastest and slightly faster than Antonio Felix da Costa in 18th.

Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr make up the penultimate row of the grid for this year’s Santiago E-Prix.