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:
Pos | Forename | Surname | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jean-Eric | Vergne | 01:03.568 |
2 | Sam | Bird | 0.027 |
3 | Nick | Heidfeld | 0.029 |
4 | Daniel | Abt | 0.156 |
5 | Felix | Rosenqvist | 1.150 |
Group Classification:
Pos | Forename | Surname | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sam | Bird | 01:03.276 |
2 | Nick | Heidfeld | 0.074 |
3 | Jean-Eric | Vergne | 0.127 |
4 | Felix | Rosenqvist | 0.190 |
5 | Daniel | Abt | 0.285 |
6 | Lucas | Di Grassi | 0.497 |
7 | Oliver | Turvey | 0.605 |
8 | Antonio Felix | da Costa | 0.638 |
9 | Sébastien | Buemi | 0.690 |
10 | Nelson | Piquet | 0.717 |
11 | Jérôme | d'Ambrosio | 1.129 |
12 | André | Lotterer | 1.147 |
13 | Kamui | Kobayashi | 1.530 |
14 | Maro | Engel | 1.631 |
15 | Luca | Filippi | 2.174 |
16 | Alex | Lynn | 2.268 |
17 | Neel | Jani | 2.339 |
18 | Nicolas | Prost | 4.469 |
19 | Edoardo | Mortara | 9.454 |
20 | Mitch | Evans | 16.340 |