d’Ambrosio takes unexpected pole position

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In a qualifying session that was expected to be fought between the e.dams drivers and the Abt Schaeffler duo, Jerome d’Ambrosio pulled a superb lap out of the bag in the Super Pole session to claim his second pole position of the season.

Group 1 saw Nick Heidfeld, Stephane Sarrazin, Loic Duval and Jean-Eric Vergne all take to the circuit looking for the fastest time possible. The initial banker laps saw Duval take the early top spot, before the full 200kW laps gave Vergne the upper hand over his compatriot, with Heidfeld in third and Sarrazin in fourth.

In the second group, championship contenders Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi were joined by Punta del Este pole sitter Jerome d’Ambrosio and the Mahindra of Bruno Senna. All except Senna had a close call as the trio entered the stadium section together, jockeying for position to get some clear air. Further round on the initial 170kW laps, Buemi blocked di Grassi and sent the Brazilian across the chicane.

Senna then got himself into bother as he ran straight on during his 170kW lap, before d’Ambrosio went quickest of all, breaking the 1:04s barrier. Shortly after, Buemi snatched the fastest time as Senna spun his car into the wall at turn one, breaking the front left suspension. di Grassi was able to sneak in the second fastest time, pushing Heidfeld, Sarrazin and Senna out of contention for the Super Pole.

In the first group of five drivers, group 3 saw Nicolas Prost, Simona de Silvestro, Antonio Felix da Costa, Daniel Abt and Oliver Turvey fight to break into the Super Pole. There was an early issue for Prost as the access hatch on the nose of his car came loose, creating an unnecessary distraction for the Frenchman. Despite this, Prost went second fastest to provisionally enter the Super Pole. Out of the group, Abt was the only other driver to break into the top five as da Costa went seventh, de Silvestro 11th and Turvey 12th.

The final group consisted of reigning champion Nelson Piquet Jr, Sam Bird, Mike Conway, Robin Frijns and home favourite Salvador Duran. There was early drama as Piquet obliterated the TecPro barriers at turn one following a lock up, resulting in the session being red flagged. With the track cleared and the clock reset, the remaining drivers set about trying to break into the top five.

On their full power laps, Bird was only able to go 11th fastest, while Conway and Duran took 13th and 14th respectively. Frijns, who had left the garage later the others, had a scrappy lap to take 13th off of Conway, leaving Buemi, Prost, di Grassi, d’Ambrosio and Abt to progress through to the Super Pole.

Having set the initial fifth fastest time, Abt kicked off proceedings in the Super Pole shootout, laying down a solid, if unspectacular marker of 1:04.335s. Next up was d’Ambrosio, who put down a storming lap to go six tenths ahead of his German rival, leaving the remaining three with a job to do to claim pole.

di Grassi, looking for his first ever Formula E pole position, was up in the middle sector but following a mistake at the final chicane had to settle for second behind the Belgian. The Brazilian was soon displaced by Prost, who knocked the Abt Schaeffler driver off the front row by a mere nine hundredths of a second.

The favourite for pole, Buemi, then took to the track looking to steal the front grid slot away from d’Ambrosio. Despite his speed in the earlier stages, the Swiss driver one again fell foul to the Super Pole mistake as he locked up going into the second chicane. That meant that d’Ambrosio took his second pole position of the season, after being described by Jack Nicholls and Scott Speed in commentary as ‘the one with the least to lose in the Super Pole group’.

Prost will take his first front row start since Long Beach last season, with di Grassi and Abt making it an all-Abt Schaeffler second row, while Buemi will line up fifth.

Full results to follow

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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