By alley - Jul 29, 2017, 1:21 PM ET

Di Grassi takes crucial Montreal Race 1 pole

Lucas di Grassi has reduced his deficit to Sebastien Buemi in the championship fight to just seven points, by taking the pole position for today's first Hydro-Quebec Montreal ePrix.

The title rivals were the last two drivers to take to the track in the Super Pole session. Buemi was out first, and slotted himself onto provisional pole with a lap of 1m23.065s.

Through the first sector di Grassi was behind the Renault e.dams driver, but he pulled it out of the bag through sectors two and three, crossing the line to record a 1m22.869s to claim his third career pole, but more importantly three bonus points.

After

his huge accident in second practice

, it was a big effort by Buemi to get through to Super Pole, but with the car reportedly needing a battery swap, a 10-place grid penalty will drop him from second to 12th and make his chances in this afternoon's race that much tougher.

A great lap by Stephane Sarrazin brought his best qualifying result for TECHEETAH in third, while Nico Prost was the first driver out in Super Pole and was fourth. Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist made a mistake under braking into the first corner and was the slowest of the Super Pole five. He is at least still mathematically in the hunt for the championship – unlike Sam Bird, whose hopes ended when his DS Virgin car was unable to engage 200kw mode, leaving him back in 18th.

Remarkably the same issue afflicted his teammate Jose Maria Lopez and Maro Engel of Venturi, while Faraday Future Dragon Racing sent Jerome D'Ambrosio out too late and he failed to cross the line in time to do a flying lap.

In contrast, it was the best qualifying session so far for Panasonic Jaguar Racing, with Mitch Evans matching his season's best in seventh and Adam Carroll having his strongest session so far in eighth.

RESULTS:

1. Lucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport 1:22.869
2. Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams 1:23.065
3. Stephane Sarrazin, TECHEETAH 1:23.179
4. Nico Prost, Renault e.dams 1:23.330
5. Felix Rosenqvist, Mahindra 1:24.351
6. Jean-Eric Vergne, TECHEETAH 1:23.398
7. Mitch Evans, Panasonic Jaguar Racing 1:23.532
8. Adam Carroll, Panasonic Jaguar Racing 1:23.869
9. Oliver Turvey, NextEV NIO 1:23.923
10. Tom Dillmann, Venturi 1:23.931
11. Loic Duval, Faraday Future Dragon Racing 1:23.999
12. Daniel Abt, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport 1:24.302
13. Robin Frijns, Andretti 1:24.622
14. Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra 1:24.769
15. Antonio Felix da Costa, Andretti 1:24.805
16. Jose Maria Lopez, DS Virgin Racing 1:25.297
17. Maro Engel, Venturi 1:25.369
18. Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing 1:25.770
19. Nelson Piquet Jr, NextEV NIO 1:26.165
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Faraday Future Dragon Racing 1:36.580