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Lotterer takes Porsche’s first Formula E pole

History was made in qualifying for today’s Mexico City E-Prix, as Porsche’s Andre Lotterer claimed pole position with a scintillating lap. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans will join him on the front row after another impressive qualifying for the New Zealander.

The first surprise came from Group One qualifying, as Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird set a time that was fast enough to creep into Super Pole, after deciding against taking a warm-up lap and going straight into his 250kw lap at the first time of asking.

In what turned out to be the most impressive group of the session, the second set of drivers had the most participants competing in the final Super Pole session, with Nick de Vries, Mitch Evans, Andre Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein all making it out of the group and into the final shootout. And as the crowd was beginning to fill up at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, it was Mitch Evans that would set what would ultimately be the fastest time of group qualifying, earning him an important bonus point.

Group three was equally intriguing, and the big talking point was defending champion Jean-Eric Vergne not making it into the final Super Pole shootout, with Robin Frijns pushing him out with a last-ditch effort. The tide has been turning against the Frenchman ever since the start of the season in Riyadh. He’ll need some solid points in the race later today.

Group four had the only stoppage of the session, with NIO’s Oliver Turvey parking up on the inside of the famous Peraltada corner, but that didn’t stop Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi setting the fastest lap and squeezing his way into Super Pole for the all-time leader in pole positions in Formula E history.

On to Super Pole, and it was all about who could nail the one-lap format under immense pressure. Sam Bird had an immense first sector that looked enough to help his cause, but the remainder off his lap left his final time vulnerable. Buemi soon went faster still, just eight-hundredths faster than the Englishman. The most bittersweet moment of Super Pole came when Wehrlein went faster still, but will sadly start from the back of the grid after taking a penalty.

Eventual pole-sitter Andre Lotterer set a massively fast lap of 1:07.922 to take pole position after Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries and Mitch Evans couldn’t match the benchmark set by the 37-year old experienced German.

Here’s the Top 6 after Qualifying:

  1. Andre Lotterer
  2. Mitch Evans
  3. Nyck de Vries
  4. Sebastien Buemi
  5. Sam Bird
  6. Robin Frijns

Image Credit: FIA Formula E Media