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Mexico City E-Prix: Wehrlein edges out Buemi to claim pole for opener

The German found one tenth in the opening sector compared with his Envision rival before increasing the gap to more than three tenths in the second timing zone.

Buemi pulled a tenth back in the final sector, but the margin remained 0.251s after Wehrlein, running ahead on track, posted a 1m13.298s.

Buemi had made it through to the final after posting a 1m13.241s as the fastest time in all three sectors was enough to beat Jaguar’s Mitch Evans in the semi-finals.

The Kiwi is set to lose a position after receiving a one-place grid drop for failing to follow red flag procedure in FP1 as the car “did not enter into its garage” after returning to the pitlane.

Wehrlein, meanwhile, bested Nick Cassidy by 0.266s in their semi-final duel, with the second Jaguar driver also set to drop a position having fallen foul of the same new red flag procedure.

A 1m13.103s from Evans was easily the best time from the quarter-final stage of qualifying, and meant he beat Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther by more than four tenths to progress to the semi-finals.

The closest quarter-final battle was between Buemi and McLaren’s Jake Hughes, with the pair separated by only 0.173s, while a small error in the middle sector cost Stoffel Vandoorne in his duel with Cassidy who also made a tiny correction in the final sector but did enough to progress.

Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6 (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

The DS Penske driver will also drop a position after being guilty of the same red flag misdemeanour as the Jaguar duo.

Wehrlein was never headed in his quarter-final bout against Robin Frijns after the Envision driver ran wide onto the grass on the exit of Turn 1, losing more than one second in the process.

The biggest casualty from the qualifying group stages was reigning champion Jake Dennis, as the Andretti driver could only finish seventh in the second group after running wide at the Turn 5 hairpin on his final run.

Guenther headed the same group with a 1m13.691s from Hughes and Buemi, as Evans took fourth despite having to deal with heavy traffic on his final effort.

DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne finished fifth ahead of Abt Cupra’s Nico Muller and Dennis, with Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa another big name who failed to progress in eighth.

Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), Oliver Rowland (Nissan) and Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) completed the order.

Frijns had earlier headed the opening qualifying group from Vandoorne, Cassidy and Wehrlein with a 1m13.807s.

Failing to improve on his final run cost Andretti driver Norman Nato as he initially finished fifth, less than a tenth from a place in the duels, but this laptime was deleted due to track limits.

He headed Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz, McLaren’s Sam Bird, Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara and Jehan Daruvala, who makes his Formula E debut this weekend with Maserati MSG.

Lucas di Grassi finished 10th after spinning on his final effort into the Turn 9/10 chicane, hitting the tecpro barrier which was then collected by ERT’s Dan Ticktum, who finished last in the session.

Mexico City E-Prix - Qualifying results:

 
 
   
Driver Info
 
 
Cla Driver # Time km/h
1 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94

1'13.298

129.073
2 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16

+0.251

1'13.549

128.632
3 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7

+0.207

1'13.505

128.709
4 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37

+0.202

1'13.500

128.718
5 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9

+0.283

1'13.581

128.576
6 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5

+0.319

1'13.617

128.513
7 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4

+2.538

1'15.836

124.753
8 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2

+0.790

1'14.088

127.696
9 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17

+0.676

1'13.974

127.893
10 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25

+0.523

1'13.821

128.158
11 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.Dams 23

+0.697

1'13.995

127.857
12 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51

+0.600

1'13.898

128.025
13 United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8

+0.719

1'14.017

127.819
14 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1

+0.628

1'13.926

127.976
15 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48

+1.043

1'14.341

127.262
16 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13

+0.684

1'13.982

127.879
17 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18

+1.171

1'14.469

127.043
18 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3

+0.714

1'14.012

127.827
19 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11

+1.719

1'15.017

126.115
20 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.Dams 22

+0.971

1'14.269

127.385
21 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33

+1.827

1'15.125

125.934
22 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21

+1.287

1'14.585

126.845

 

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