FE: Bird on pole while Buemi starts last

Sam Bird earned pole position for the Buenos Aires ePrix, while Formula E championship leader Sebastien Buemi will start last after a spin in qualifying.

Bird's effort continued a recent resurgence for the DS Virgin Racing team by claiming the alliance's first pole in the series. His superpole time of 1m09.420s put him comfortably clear of Nico Prost, who took up the Renault e.dams charge after Buemi spun, but was almost four tenths slower than Bird.

Prost only just edged Antonio Felix da Costa off the front row as the Portuguese continued to excel in the season-one specification Team Aguri entry.

Stephane Sarrazin was quickest in the group phase but could not replicate that pace in the final shootout and will join da Costa on the second row.

British driver Mike Conway starred on his debut qualifying session by making it into the superpole, in which a messy lap left him fifth.

Buemi was on course to top the group phase of qualifying but locked his Renault Z.E.15's rear wheels and spun at Turn 7. That left him slowest of the 18 drivers, although he will take small consolation from main title rival Lucas di Grassi failing to make it through to the superpole session as well.

The Abt Audi Sport man wound up seventh, just behind Andretti driver Robin Frijns as the two missed out on the top-five positions by less than a tenth of a second.

Daniel Abt will join teammate di Grassi on row four, with inaugural series champion Nelson Piquet Jr. earning his best qualifying result of the season in ninth, just ahead of Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Salvador Duran, on his Team Aguri return, and Mahindra's Bruno Senna both hit the wall in qualifying. The incidents occurred on their full-power laps in the third group, but their 170kW efforts were quick enough to put them ahead of Buemi.

Jean-Eric Vergne will contest the race after all, despite missing practice due to illness. The DS Virgin driver will line up 15th.

The Formula E race from Buenos Aires airs tonight on FOX Sports 2 at 8:00pm ET. The race will be replayed on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday at 6:30pm ET.

Originally on Autosport.com