Lucas Di Grassi claimed his first pole of the season ahead of the Santiago E-Prix, pending an investigation into brake irregularities.
The Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler driver will line up alongside Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi while Pascal Wehrlein, fastest in the group stages, lines up third.
Di Grassi was quickest after the second qualifying group, but dropped back to third as Wehrlein and Buemi lowered the benchmark. The trio were joined by Sam Bird, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Daniel Abt in the super pole shoot out.
Abt, out first in super pole, set a 1m08.958s lap, half a second slower than Wehrlein’s time in the group stages, but quick enough to keep him on provisional pole after Vandoorne and Bird completed their super pole laps
Di Grassi knocked his team-mate back to second with a flying lap that lowered the benchmark to just 1m08.290s, a time nobody could get within half a second of.
Abt fell back to fourth by the end of the super pole session, finishing ahead of Vandoorne and Bird – though Vandoorne also ends the session under investigation for leaving the pit lane too late during his first super pole experience.
Edoardo Mortara narrowly missed out on the super pole, lining up sixth ahead of Maximilian Guenther, Alexander Sims, and Felipe Massa.
Those at the top of the championship standings find themselves starting towards the back of the grid. The top five drivers ran in the first group, but their times couldn’t stand up against those set later on the rapidly improving track. It prompted Jean-Eric Vergne, who topped the first group but ended the session 13th, to tweet that the championship may as well be a reverse grid series.
Championship leader Jerome D’Ambrosio qualified 21st of 22 drivers, ahead of only Tom Dillmann.
The race begins at 4pm local time this afternoon.
Super Pole:
Pos | Forename | Surname | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Lucas | DI GRASSI | 01:08.290 |
2 | Sébastien | BUEMI | 0.526 |
3 | Pascal | WEHRLEIN | 0.635 |
4 | Daniel | ABT | 0.668 |
5 | Stoffel | VANDOORNE | 0.945 |
6 | Sam | BIRD | 0.963 |
Group Classification:
Pos | Forename | Surname | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Pascal | WEHRLEIN | 01:08.463 |
2 | Sébastien | BUEMI | 0.201 |
3 | Lucas | DI GRASSI | 0.379 |
4 | Sam | BIRD | 0.405 |
5 | Stoffel | VANDOORNE | 0.499 |
6 | Daniel | ABT | 0.567 |
7 | Edoardo | MORTARA | 0.579 |
8 | Maximilian | GÜNTHER | 0.680 |
9 | Alexander | SIMS | 0.684 |
10 | Felipe | MASSA | 0.705 |
11 | José Maria | LOPEZ | 0.738 |
12 | Mitch | EVANS | 0.772 |
13 | Jean-Eric | VERGNE | 0.844 |
14 | Oliver | ROWLAND | 0.902 |
15 | André | LOTTERER | 1.022 |
16 | Robin | FRIJNS | 1.042 |
17 | Gary | PAFFETT | 1.042 |
18 | Antonio Felix | DA COSTA | 1.088 |
19 | Oliver | TURVEY | 1.182 |
20 | Nelson | PIQUET | 1.242 |
21 | Jérôme | D'AMBROSIO | 1.620 |
22 | Tom | DILLMANN | 1.795 |