Advantage Jimenez after claiming Pole in New York City

Sergio Jimenez took pole position as he looks to build on his championship lead. 

The Brazilian driver enters the weekend with a six-point lead over Bryan Sellers in the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Drivers’ standings.

Additionally, Caca Bueno and Simon Evans also have a strong chance of becoming champion this weekend.

In the early stages, Jimenez set a benchmark time of 1:28.826, only to suffer a front-left puncture moments later.

As he pitted for repairs, Bueno went quickest with a 1:28.636, with Evans marginally behind in second and Sellers moving into third. 

Just before session’s midpoint, Jimenez returned to the track and was on fire. His time of 1:28.211 comfortably put him on provisional pole, while Katherine Legge moved up to second place.

Elsewhere, Sellers dropped to fifth was forced to pit after his brush with the wall knocked off a wing mirror. 

During the final minutes of the session, Jimenez opted to stay in the pits with his sizeable advantage.

The remainder of the field tried to improve and in the final minute, Sellers crashed and broke his car’s rear suspension.

As a result, the session wasn’t restarted and none of the drivers were able to improve.

This allowed Sergio Jimenez to claim his second pole of the season and extended his championship lead to seven points.

Katherine Legge will start the first race in New York alongside him on the front row, with Jimenez’s team-mate Caca Bueno under investigation in third. 

Simon Evans could only manage fourth, while Bryan Sellers’ mechanics face a challenge to rebuild his car and enable him to start in fifth place.

Bandar Alesayi was fastest in the Pro-Am class and will start from sixth, ahead of Yaqi Zhang and Ahmed Bin-Khanen. 

Ziyi Zhang will line up ninth with guest driver Mark Hacking in tenth, while Celia Martin failed to set a lap time. 

Photo courtesy of Jaguar Racing