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Buemi keeps it clean to secure pole in Monaco

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Sebastien Buemi has taken pole position for the Monaco ePrix following a Super Pole session that saw others encounter difficulties on their laps, with the reigning champion nailing it to round out qualifying as the fastest driver.

Group one saw Buemi set the early benchmark with a time of 53.413s, half a second ahead of Loic Duval in the Faraday Future Dragon Racing machine, while Evans was third fastest ahead of Oliver Turvey and Antonio Felix da Costa.

The bar set by Buemi in group one was unable to be beaten by any of the group two challengers, with the Mahindra of Nick Heidfeld the closest challenger. Esteban Gutierrez managed to get his Techeetah into the top five with a solid lap, while Nico Prost clipped the wall at the start of his 200kW lap and ruined any chance of taking pole position.

There was more drama later in the group as Adam Carroll slid the rear end of his Jaguar into the wall at the exit of the swimming pool, causing damage to the wheel housing.

Group three saw a surprise in store, with favourites Sam Bird and Lucas di Grassi unable to trump Buemi’s time but no one expected the Venturi of Maro Engel to put in a stellar lap and beat Buemi’s benchmark time, all but confirming his place in Super Pole.

Stephane Sarrazin and Robin Frijns came close to reaching the top five, but ultimately fell short with sixth and eighth places respectively at the end of group three.

In what had the potential to be the ‘death group’ of qualifying, Nelson Piquet Jr and Jean-Eric Vergne did enough to secure their places in Super Pole, with the latter topping the times ahead of Engel.

Jose Maria Lopez and Daniel Abt did enough to secure top ten grid slots, while Felix Rosenqvist missed out on Super Pole by a mere 0.053s, taking sixth place in the process.

di Grassi got the Super Pole session underway and set a respectable 53.550s despite brushing the wall on the exit of the final corner. Piquet Jr could have beaten his compatriot, but had a messy lap of his own and was unable to lap quicker than di Grassi.

Buemi kept his head clean for his Super Pole lap and went 0.237s quicker than his rival to set himself up for pole position in the Principality.

Engel suffered a disappointing Super Pole lap, as the German slid sideways into the barrier before carrying on to set a time of 55.013s, 1.700s off the pace of Buemi’s pole time. Vergne locked up in the first corner and ruined his lap before it had even start, before having to settle for fourth on the grid.

Group stages

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Super Pole

SP

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Image courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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About Topher Smith
Topher is an experienced and passionate Motorsport journalist with Formula E, Formula 1, GP2/F2, GP3 and IndyCar all on his resume. When he isn't at the trackside you can find him furthering his own capabilities and knowledge through his endless search for original ideas and material. Also plays league pool.