Vergne Beats Dennis To Second Rome Race Pole
Calum Gill 11:21 10/04/2022
Two-time Formula E champion Jean-Éric Vergne secured his 13th series pole position by topping qualifying for the second race of the Rome weekend.
Vergne defeated the Avalanche Andretti run BMW of Jake Dennis in the final shootout to secure pole on a 1:38.268, two tenths of a second quicker than Dennis. It hands Vergne three bonus points and marks DS Techeetah’s first pole since the Frenchman topped qualifying for the first race at last season’s Berlin finale. Porsche’s André Lotterer matched his Mexico qualifying best to take third place ahead of Rome race one winner Mitch Evans, who made the duels for the first time this season. Evans defeated his Jaguar team-mate Bird, last in the duels at the season-opener, in the quarter-finals but Bird was the fastest of the losers, so will line up in fifth place.
He’ll share the third row of the grid with the Envision entry of Robin Frijns who was just 0.008 seconds slower than his former team-mate. Mexico E-Prix winner Pascal Wehrlein was seventh ahead of Saturday’s poleman Stoffel Vandoorne. Defending Formula E champion Nyck de Vries failed to make it through to the duels for the first time this season as he qualified in 10th place behind Vergne’s team-mate António Félix da Costa. Compounding de Vries’ tricky day is the three-place grid penalty he picked up yesterday for the collision with Porsche’s Wehrlein that ended de Vries’ race.
Sergio Sette Camara almost completed one of his trademark qualifying upsets as he was on course to put Dragon Penske into the duels for the first time in 2022 until he crashed into the barriers on his final lap. His 11th place still marks the best 2022 qualifying result for the team which currently occupies the bottom spot in the championship with zero points. Sette Camara will start from 10th ahead of championship leader Edoardo Mortara and his Venturi team-mate Lucas di Grassi. Former Alfa Romeo Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi’s tricky home weekend continued as he failed to reach the chequered flag in time to start his final flying lap and will line up on the back row of the grid alongside NIO 333’s Oliver Turvey who was outqualified for the second time this season by his team-mate Dan Ticktum.
