Formula E: Buemi takes late pole at Long Beach

Sebastien Buemi stole pole position for the Formula E race at Long Beach in the last moments of the final qualifying segment.

The Toyota World Endurance Championship racer crossed the line moments after Daniel Abt had just knocked Nicolas Prost off of top spot following a red flag in the final part of qualifying.

Championship leader Prost had been on top since setting his lap in the second session, but Buemi and Abt pushed him off the front row with their final flying laps once the track re-opened following a crash for Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Nelson Piquet Jr. – wearing the helmet colors of his three-time Formula 1 world champion father (a Long Beach winner in 1980) this weekend – completed the second row, having narrowly missed out on toppling Prost when he caught Stephane Sarrazin on his best lap in the third session.
Piquet spent a large part of his best lap tucked up behind Sarrazin, who was also on a personal best lap at that time and therefore was not required to move out of the way.

Practice pacesetter Lucas di Grassi ended qualifying with the fifth-fastest time, although there was drama shortly after he completed his running when his car caught fire in parc ferme.

Sixth place went to Jean-Eric Vergne, who led the way in the first qualifying segment just ahead of his Andretti Autosport teammate Scott Speed.

Prost made sure the IndyCar team's front row lockout didn't last long thanks to his lap in the following segment, and as the Andretti cars slipped down the order they were eventually split by Antonio Felix da Costa in seventh.

The short Long Beach layout meant the field was incredibly close, with 1.097 seconds covering the 19 cars that set representative times.

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Originally on Autosport.com