1-2 for Dragon Racing in Punta del Este qualifying

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Jerome d’Ambrosio claims the pole position for the Punta del Este ePrix ahead of his team mate Loic Duval. Behind the Dragon Racing front row, Sam Bird will start alongside Lucas di Grassi while Sebastien Buemi has to settle for fifth place after a lock-up during the super pole shootout.

Oliver Turvey was the fastest in the first qualifying group, first out on the track and first on the provisional timing sheets ahead of NEXTEV TCR team mate Nelson Piquet Jr. Jean-Eric Vergne on the other hand, who had risked waiting until halfway through the session to set his laptime, had an abysmal qualifying. First, the DS Virgin driver locked up and slid across a chicane, and then he came together with Team Aguri’s Nathanael Berthon.

In the second qualifying group, di Grassi was fastest ahead of d’Ambrosio, Bird, and Nicolas Prost, who all jumped ahead of Turvey in the standings. Only Robin Frijns was slower and slipped into sixth place, separating the two NEXTEV TCR drivers.

In group three, it was Duval who had the upper hand in an exciting session and jumped up into the top five, behind team mate d’Ambrosio. Daniel Abt’s lap was hindered by a bump over the curbs and he ended up between Prost and Turvey, with Antonio Felix Da Costa demoting Turvey even further. Sarrazin finished just outside the top ten, and Oliver Rowland was able beat only Vergne after locking up heavily and only narrowly avoiding the walls during his fast lap.

In group four it was Buemi’s time to shine: the Renault e.dams driver beat di Grassi’s time by one tenth of a second and secured himself the top spot, and Bruno Senna slotted into ninth place just before the qualifying session was interrupted by double yellow flags due to Jacques Villeneuve hitting a wall. The yellow flags ruined also the end of Simona de Silvestro’s lap, so that she had to settle for 15th place, ahead of Rowland, Vergne, and Villeneuve.

In the super pole shootout, Bird was the first out on track, although a comparatively slow lap left him behind the Dragon Racing cars. d’Ambrosio beat his team mate despite some errors during his flying lap. Then all eyes were on the duel between di Grassi and Buemi: di Grassi went out first, however, his lap was doomed from the start after damaging his car in the first sector. It looked like this would hand Buemi his third consecutive pole position, however, the Renault e.dams driver himself locked up in the second sector and had to take a detour through the run-off area that saw him eventually drop down behind di Grassi.

The starting order for today’s ePrix will be as follows: d’Ambrosio and Duval line up on the front row of the grid ahead of Bird and di Grassi, while Buemi in fifth place is joined by Nicolas Prost on the third row. Abt will start from seventh place alongside da Costa, and the top ten of the grid is completed by Senna and Turvey starting from ninth and tenth place.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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