Dennis takes pole, championship lead, and record at Portland

Jake Dennis takes pole position and the lead of the championship standings ahead of the Portland E-Prix. 

The Andretti driver beat Sacha Fenestraz in the Finals and set the quickest lap in Formula E history during his semi-final run. 

Group Stages

Despite traffic issues in practice, it was a trouble free qualifying for most of the field.  

In Group A, Fenestraz set the pace early on ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Norman Nato. 

The top three wouldn’t change in the second half of the session, but there was lots of movement further down. Stoffel Vandoorne and Maximillian Guenther swapped places in P4, with Guenther coming out on top and making it through to the duels. 

Vandoorne just missed out on a spot in the top four, placing fifth ahead of Nick Cassidy and Nico Mueller. Pascal Wehrlein, who entered qualifying as the championship leader, could only manage 10th quickest. 

Group B was much more volitile in terms of changes in the order. Rene Rast and Jake Dennis swapped times at the top of the order, with Rast coming out on top with a time of 1m09.808s. 

Robin Frijns briefly went second quickest as he took the chequered flag, only for Antonio Felix Da Costa, Rast, Jake Hughes and Andre Lotterer to all find improvements on their final laps. Hughes and Da Costa would go through to the duels. 

Duels

Dennis’ journey to the finals started with a head to head with Jake Hughes, who he beat by 0.274s. He then went up against Rene Rast, who had beaten Da Costa in the quarterfinals despite a mistake at the first chicane. 

At this point, the record for the fastest lap in Formula E history was back in the hands of Fenestraz. The Nissan driver beat Guenther in the quarterfinals then faced his team-mate in the semis. Fenestraz managed a time of 1m08.920s, beating the time set in FP1 and reclaiming the record he had set in Cape Town. 

However, that wouldn’t last long. Dennis managed a time of 1m08.919s, beating Rast and taking the record. 

Neither driver would better their times in the finals, though Dennis would again go quicker than 1m09s. The Andretti driver managed a time of 1m08.931s, just 0.079s quicker than Fenestraz. The time secured Dennis his first pole of the season. 

Behind the pair, Nato starts third ahead of Rast and Guenther. 

Vergne placed sixth overall, but both DS Penske drivers will start from the pit lane. The team was found to have installed equipment in the pit lane which scanned the barcodes of tyres on the other cars.  

The penalty promotes Hughes to sixth ahead of Da Costa, Lotterer and Frijns.