By alley - Jun 27, 2015, 9:41 AM ET

Formula E: Buemi on pole for London opener

Sebastien Buemi claimed pole position for this afternoon's 10th round of the inaugural Formula E Championship in London, for the e.dams squad. The Swiss driver lapped the 1.81-mile Battersea Park circuit in 1m24.648s to end up nearly half a second quicker than Dragon Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio on a 1m25.104s.

Buemi and d'Ambrosio both set their times in the fourth of the five-car mini-sessions.

The result earns Buemi three bonus points, moving him to within 14 of points leader Nelson Piquet Jr.

Abt driver Di Grassi, who along with Buemi is the only driver who can realistically challenge Piquet over this weekend's Formula E double-header finale, was only one thousandth of a second behind d'Ambrosio in third.

Piquet took fourth place in his China Racing Spark-Renault SRT_01E with a 1m25.144s. Jean-Eric Vergne and Nicolas Prost rounded out the top six.

Formula E debutant Oliver Turvey took seventh place China Racing with a time just over a second down on polesitter Buemi.

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Sebastien Buemi	e.dams	1m24.648ss	1m24.648s
2	Jerome D'Ambrosio	Dragon	1m25.104ss	0.456s
3	Lucas di Grassi	Abt	1m25.105ss	0.457s
4	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China	1m25.144ss	0.496s
5	Jean-Eric Vergne	Andretti	1m25.182ss	0.534s
6	Nicolas Prost	e.dams	1m25.258ss	0.610s
7	Oliver Turvey	China	1m25.829ss	1.181s
8	Bruno Senna	Mahindra	1m25.879ss	1.231s
9	Sam Bird	Virgin	1m25.894ss	1.246s
10	Salvador Duran	Aguri	1m25.964ss	1.316s
11	Loic Duval	Dragon	1m25.988ss	1.340s
12	Nick Heidfeld	Venturi	1m26.128ss	1.480s
13	Daniel Abt	Abt	1m26.302ss	1.654s
14	Stephane Sarrazin	Venturi	1m26.318ss	1.670s
15	Jarno Trulli	Trulli	1m26.852ss	2.204s
16	Karun Chandhok	Mahindra	1m27.160ss	2.512s
17	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti	1m27.208ss	2.560s
18	Sakon Yamamoto	Aguri	1m27.456ss	2.808s
19	Alex Fontana	Trulli	1m28.083ss	3.435s
20	Fabio Leimer	Virgin	1m28.152ss	3.504s