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Vergne takes pole position in spectacular fashion

Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne claimed the first pole position of the 2017/18 Formula E season in Hong Kong – despite hitting the wall and crossing the line backwards.

Vergne ran slightly wide at the final corner before hitting the wall which sent him into a spin.

But as the timing line is so close to the exit of the final corner, Vergne was able to claim pole position ahead of DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird by 0.027s.

Bird also made a mistake on his lap, running slightly wide at Turn 6 and costing him time although it was not enough to allow Mahindra’s Nick Heidfeld to claim a front row start.

Heidfeld qualified 0.002s behind Bird to claim third place ahead of Audi ABT Schaeffler Sport’s Daniel Abt.

Heidfeld’s Mahindra team-mate, Felix Rosenqvist took fifth place after locking up at the tight Turn 1 hairpin on his one Super Pole lap.

Reigning champion Lucas di Grassi was sixth ahead of NIO’s Oliver Turvey. Antonio Felix da Costa claimed eighth ahead of Sebastien Buemi, Nelson Piquet and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

D’Ambrosio was involved in an incident in groups qualifying after Nico Prost crashed on the exit of Turn 5. The Renault e.Dams driver hit the wall on the exit of Turn 5 before dragging a Michelin advertising banner around the track.

Dragon’s D’Ambrosio was behind Prost on track and ended up collecting the advertising banners.

He was able to recover to qualify in 11th place, while Prost qualified 18th.

Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer claimed best rookie qualifying with 12th place, just ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Luca Filippi qualified in 15th place, 2.174s off the pace, and half a second behind Maro Engel in 16th place.

DS Virgin Racing’s Alex Lynn was 16th on his return to the series ahead of Dragon’s Neel Jani.

Debutant Edoardo Mortara qualified 19th ahead of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, who did not cross the line in time to set a fast lap in group qualifying.

Super Pole:

PosForenameSurnameGap
1Jean-EricVergne01:03.568
2SamBird0.027
3NickHeidfeld0.029
4DanielAbt0.156
5FelixRosenqvist1.150

Group Classification:

PosForenameSurnameGap
1SamBird01:03.276
2NickHeidfeld0.074
3Jean-EricVergne0.127
4FelixRosenqvist0.190
5DanielAbt0.285
6LucasDi Grassi0.497
7OliverTurvey0.605
8Antonio Felixda Costa0.638
9SébastienBuemi0.690
10NelsonPiquet0.717
11Jérômed'Ambrosio1.129
12AndréLotterer1.147
13KamuiKobayashi1.530
14MaroEngel1.631
15LucaFilippi2.174
16AlexLynn2.268
17NeelJani2.339
18NicolasProst4.469
19EdoardoMortara9.454
20MitchEvans16.340

Jack Amey

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