Buemi makes title showdown perfect by getting pole-position

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The last qualifying session of Formula E’s second season saw an intense battle for pole-position and the additional three points which were collected by Sebastien Buemi in the end. The Swiss and Lucas di Grassi (P3) both head into the final race with 153 points each.

After FP2 was cancelled due to a power outrage around Battersea Park, a handful of drivers – among them championship contender Lucas di Grassi – went into the last qualifying session of the season with a slight disadvantage as they did not yet practice their full-power laps today.

Nicolas Prost (Renault e.Dams), yesterday’s pole-sitter and race winner, once again headed out on track in group 1 and was joined by Nelson Piquet JR (NextEV TCR), Sam Bird (DS Virgin Racing) and the Dragon Racing duo Jerome d’Ambrosio and Loic Duval. With a flawless lap, Prost topped the timesheets in group 1 followed by Bird. Surprisingly, Nelson Piquet Jr could improve massively compared to the performance he had shown in London so far and out-qualified both Dragon Racing drivers.

The first championship contender, Lucas di Grassi, made his way onto the track in group 2 and shared the track with Mike Conway (Venturi), Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Virgin Racing), Simona de Silvestro (MS Amlin Andretti) and Qing Hua Ma (Team Aguri). The Brazilian went around the track faster than his direct opponents but could not quite match Prost’s pace, finishing P2 in the overall standings at that stage. Vergne secured the third-fastest time while Conway, de Silvestro and Ma could not finish any higher than P8, P9 and P10 respectively.

Sebastien Buemi who but in a record-breaking lap in FP1 was the centre of attention when group 3 went out on track. The Swiss driver was joined by Daniel Abt (ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport), Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra Racing) and Antonio Felix da Costa (Team Aguri). As expected, Buemi gave it his all and put in an incredible 1.22.106 which put him in front by nearly eight tenth of a second. The Germans in the group impressed as well as both Heidfeld and Abt made it into the top-5 with two stunning laps each. Da Costa, unfortunately, was not any luckier in qualifying today as he was yesterday, only managing to secure P12.

Stephane Sarrazin (Venturi), Bruno Senna (Mahindra Racing), Robin Frijns (MS Amlin Andretti) and Oliver Turvey (NextEV TCR) were the last drivers in the regular qualifying groups to take the stage. With a a fantastic lap, local hero Turvey managed to surprise everyone and managed to make it through to Super Pole. Yesterday’s second-placed Senna could not build on his performance and finished in P13, while Sarrazin and Frijns secured P15 and P16 respectively.

The pressure was on in Super Pole. Heidfeld was the first driver to head out on track and already suffered from a big lock-up going into turn 1 which immediately put him out of the fight for pole-position. Di Grassi was up next and for the first time ever the Brazilian managed to set a lap time below the 1.23-minutes mark. The 1.22.975 put him on top of the timesheets at this stage. The session’s surprise Turvey followed the current championship leader and gave his opponents a run for their money. Prost lined up after Turvey secured a temporarily second place. The Frenchman started with a three tenth-lead on di Grassi in sector one but lost time in both sector two and three. Nevertheless, he managed to beat di Grassi’s time by mere 27 thousands of a second.

Buemi was the last driver out in qualifying and kept his cool during this extremely important session and put in a tremendous lap that put him on pole-position, securing the three additional points and therefore evening out the championship standings. While di Grassi is still ahead due to his number of victories, both him and Buemi go into the last race of the season with 153 points.

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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