Mortara Takes Back-To-Back Berlin Poles For Venturi
Grid Talk Reporter 11:03 15/05/2022
Edoardo Mortara’s domination of Formula E’s Berlin double-header continued as he took pole position after controlling qualifying on the reversed Tempelhof circuit.
Venturi’s Mortara won Saturday’s opener from his maiden pole and he added another pole position on Sunday by beating the Audi-powered Envision entry of Robin Frijns in the final by almost half a second. Mortara now sits just 16 points adrift of the championship lead, taking his weekend total thus far to 31 points. Second place marks a big improvement for Frijns and Envision who qualified 20th on Saturday. Defending champion Nyck de Vries struggled to 12th in Saturday’s qualifying session but he claimed third place on the grid on Sunday only losing out to Mortara on Sunday. Porsche’s André Lotterer continued his impressive 2022 qualifying form by taking fourth place.
The 2019-20 Formula E champion António Félix da Costa was the fastest of the quarter-final losers in the duels and will line up in fifth place ahead of the Envision of Nick Cassidy who is enjoying a much more competitive Sunday. Venturi’s Lucas di Grassi couldn’t match the pace of his team-mate and will start seventh ahead of championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne who made a mistake on his lap and was the slowest of the quarter final losers. Vandoorne’s closest title rival Jean-Éric Vergne was bumped out of a place in the duels by his team-mate da Costa. He’ll start from ninth alongside Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, who is third in the championship.
Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland will start from 11th place ahead of his team-mate Alexander Sims, who scooped his first points of 2022 on Saturday, and the Nissan e.dams of Maximilian Guenther. Oliver Turvey took a respectable 14th for NIO 333 while ex-F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi had one of his best Formula E qualifying sessions in 17th place, such has been the difficulty of his maiden year.
