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Diriyah E-Prix: Rowland dominates to take pole from Frijns

The Nissan driver was in impressive form during all stages of qualifying in Saudi Arabia and saved his best effort until his final duel against Frijns.

Fastest time in all three sectors left him with a 1m10.055s, the quickest lap from the entirety of qualifying, which bagged Rowland his first pole since Seoul in 2022.

Rowland had progressed to the final by beating Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy by less than two tenths in their semi-final duel, as Frijns got the better of DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne by a similar margin in their semi-final clash.

Rowland booked his place in the semi-finals after beating Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala by more than six tenths, the Indian driver having progressed to the duels for the first time in his fledgling Formula E career.

Cassidy was never headed in his battle against McLaren’s Jake Hughes, while a small error from Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz in the opening sector meant he lost out against Vandoorne.

Polesitter from yesterday’s Diriyah E-Prix Jean-Eric Vergne was firmly beaten in his quarter-final duel with Frijns, the DS Penske driver finishing 0.227s adrift.

Reigning champion Jake Dennis will have to climb from 15th on the grid if he is to repeat his opening Diriyah E-Prix victory, after his final qualifying effort was thwarted by a red flag in the qualifying stages.

The Andretti driver was left eighth in the second group and unable to improve after Sebastien Buemi crashed at Turn 2 as the chequered flag came out with drivers on their final laps.

Oliver Rowland, Nissan Formula E Team, with runner up Robin Frijns, Envision Racing (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

It left Rowland’s 1m10.486s as the quickest time from Cassidy, who had completed his lap just seconds before Buemi’s accident, Hughes and Daruvala.

Buemi had set the fifth fastest time but the Envision driver lost his best lap for causing the red flag, with it being confirmed post-qualifying that he would not start this evening's race due to the damage sustained to his car in the accident.

Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), McLaren’s Sam Bird, Dennis, Nico Muller (Abt Cupra), Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) and Lucas di Grassi (Abt Cupra) completed the order.

After losing a podium position on the final lap of the Diriyah E-Prix yesterday, Mitch Evans’s Saudi Arabian experience went from bad to worse as he too failed to progress beyond the group stage.

Having topped FP3 earlier in the day, the Jaguar driver could only finish seventh in the opening group, which was headed by Fenestraz, Frijns, Vergne and Vandoorne.

For the second race in a row, Mexico City E-Prix winner Pascal Wehrlein also failed to progress beyond the group stage as the Porsche driver finished fifth, just over a tenth away from a coveted spot.

The current championship leader headed Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther, Evans, Dan Ticktum (ERT), Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) and Norman Nato (Andretti).

Wehrlein’s team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa continued his disastrous start to the season by finishing bottom of the group, more than one second behind Fenestraz’s 1m10.641s.

Diriyah E-Prix Starting Grid:

 
 
   
Driver Info
 
 
Cla Driver # Time km/h
1 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.Dams 22

1'10.055

128.162
2 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4

+0.274

1'10.329

127.662
3 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37

+0.240

1'10.295

127.724
4 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2

+0.572

1'10.627

127.124
5 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18

+0.731

1'10.786

126.838
6 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5

+0.939

1'10.994

126.467
7 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.Dams 23

+1.022

1'11.077

126.319
8 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25

+1.057

1'11.112

126.257
9 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3

+0.931

1'10.986

126.481
10 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94

+0.891

1'10.946

126.552
11 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16

+1.097

1'11.152

126.186
12 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7

+0.938

1'10.993

126.468
13 United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8

+1.110

1'11.165

126.163
14 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9

+0.987

1'11.042

126.381
15 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1

+1.173

1'11.228

126.051
16 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33

+1.252

1'11.307

125.911
17 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51

+1.313

1'11.368

125.804
18 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21

+1.272

1'11.327

125.876
19 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48

+1.331

1'11.386

125.772
20 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17

+1.335

1'11.390

125.765
21 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11

+1.751

1'11.806

125.036
22 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13

+1.607

1'11.662

125.288
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