De Vries Edges Out Mortara For Diriyah Race Two Pole
Calum Gill 14:11 29/01/2022
Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries will start the second race of Formula E’s Diriyah E-Prix season-opener from pole position after edging the customer Venturi-Mercedes of Edoardo Mortara by just 0.005 seconds.
Defending champion de Vries went head-to-head with Mortara in the final of Formula E’s new knockout qualifying format, having defeated DS Techeetah’s Jean-Éric Vergne and Mortara’s team-mate Lucas di Grassi in the previous two rounds. De Vries, who was victorious in race one on Friday from third on the grid, was three tenths quicker than Mortara through sector one of the deciding lap, but Mortara clawed back time through sector two and just missed out by 0.005 seconds at the chequered flag. It continues Mercedes’ brilliant start to the 2021-22 season after Stoffel Vandoorne secured pole for race one and its drivers finished one-two in the race.
The 2016-17 Formula E champion di Grassi beat António Félix da Costa in bizarre circumstances in the quarter-finals as da Costa missed the initial green light at the end of the pitlane, instead, exiting on the second green light that was intended for di Grassi. This meant di Grassi watched on from the pitlane while da Costa had the track to himself to complete his lap. But he backed off on the approach to the final corner so when di Grassi was then told he could exit the pitlane via a third green light and set a lap, he was able to comfortably beat him. “Either I’m blind or we as a team made a mistake,” da Costa admitted after the session. “It’s already screwed my day up.”
Porsche's André Lotterer was the fastest of the quarter-final losers and will start from fifth place ahead of two-time Formula E champion Vergne and his DS Techeetah team-mate da Costa. Oliver Rowland qualified in seventh place, but he’ll move back three spaces because of a three-place grid penalty for the first of two collisions with Envision’s Robin Frijns in race one. The top 10 in qualifying was completed by the two drivers who just missed out on a place in the duels - Mahindra’s Alexander Sims and race one’s third-place finisher Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti). Mercedes EQ’s Vandoorne, who only lost the race one victory after an attack mode activation error, was the big name dropout in the group stages in 11th place after a lairy moment at Turn 2.
The second Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein was 12th ahead of Nissan e DAMS’ Maximilian Günther and Dragon Penske driver Sérgio Sette Camara. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans clipped the wall and bent his steering off-centre, meaning he could only manage a time good enough for 15th on the grid. Oliver Askew, who scored points on his Formula E debut on Friday, was once again the fastest of the 2022 rookie trio in 16th place ahead of NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum, with Formula 1 convert Antonio Giovinazzi 19th for Dragon Penske.
For the second successive day, 2015-16 Formula E champion Sébastien Buemi felt he was blocked on his fastest lap and that left him down in 18th place. Sam Bird tapped the wall on the exit of the fast Turn 11 left-hander and broke his Jaguar before he was able to set a representative laptime in qualifying, meaning he’ll share the back row of the grid with Nick Cassidy who crashed in final practice and was unable to participate in qualifying.
