Buemi takes pole in Putrajaya

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Sebastian Buemi is on a high: the Swiss claimed the second pole position of the season in Malaysia, ahead of Stephane Sarrazin and Loic Duval. Antonio Felix Da Costa surprised as well, lining up fourth in the grid ahead of Buemi’s team mate Nicolas Prost.

Duval and Prost already had their outings in the first qualifying sessions alongside both Mahindra cars. While Bruno Senna and Nick Heidfeld had slower lap times that would land them in the midfield, Loic Duval was the fastest of the group, despite actually having set a slower lap time than the one in the free practice session earlier.

Afterwards it was Buemi’s time to shine. The Swiss driver admitted later on that it had not been a perfect lap, especially the first sector, however, it was good enough to put him comfortably ahead of everyone. Da Costa surprised by sneaking up to fourth place and into the super pole shootout, beating Lucas di Grassi, who settled down just outside the top five with a hearty kiss of the wall, and rookie Robin Frijns.

The third qualifying brought a surprise as well. Nelson Piquet Jr. thrashed the car around the Malaysian street track in a rough fashion, and although the Brasilian did his best, he remained at the bottom of the grid. The performance of the Virgin cars was underwhelming too: Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird settled in the midfield, with Bird clouting the wall in turn 11. It was, however, Stephane Sarrazin who stole the spotlight. With all eyes on Bird and his mistake, the Frenchman had a lighting lap and dashed up to P2 on the time sheet.

In the fourth qualifying session, Jerome d’Ambrosio made everyone hold their breaths with a promising lap, although an error in the last sector made it all come undone and the Belgian settled for seventh outside the super pole positions. Jacques Villeneuve and Daniel Abt settled down in the midfield, while the laps of Oliver Turvey and Simona de Silvestro saw both drop to the bottom of the grid.

In the super pole session, da Costa was the first man out on track, and remained ahead of Nicolas Prost who had his fast lap handicapped by a problem with his car. Duval was the third one out and claimed the provisional pole position despite a huge lock-up, but his time was beaten by Sarrazin. However, it was eventually Buemi’s name that stood at the top at the end of the session: Despite a lock-up and a scary moment in a Turn 11, the Swiss driver managed to beat the Frenchman clearly and claimed his second pole position in a row.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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