Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
Evans halts Vergne run to take first Misano E-Prix pole
Mitch Evans ended Jean-Eric Vergne’s strong run at the Misano E-Prix to give Jaguar TCS Racing its first pole position of the ABB Formula E season.
DS Penske driver Vergne topped both practices as well as the opening group qualifying session, but couldn’t convert those performances into pole, missing out to Evans by 0.16s.
Evans, who locked in pole with a 1m17.068s in the final of the head-to-head Duels, was second to NEOM McLaren driver Jake Hughes in the other group qualifying session, but avenged that by defeating him in the semifinals after the Brit lost time by running wide at Turn 11 and launching off a sausage kerb.
Before that, he beat Hughes’ McLaren teammate Sam Bird, while Vergne defeated Maserati MSG's Maximilian Guenther and championship leader, TAG Heuer Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein. Wehrlein edged Nissan’s Oliver Rowland in his first Duel, marking the first time Rowland has failed to achieve pole after advancing to the head-to-head stage this season.
Prior to the Duels, Robin Frijns, Sacha Fenestraz, Antonio Felix da Costa, Lucas di Grassi, Stoffel Vandoorne, Jehan Daruvala, and Sergio Sette Camara all failed to advance from Group A.
In Group B, Nick Cassidy -- who made it out after a heavy crash towards the end of FP2 -- failed to advance after being ousted from the top four by Mueller. He was joined on the sidelines by Sebastien Buemi, Norman Nato, Edoardo Mortara, Dan Ticktum, Jake Dennis, and Nyck de Vries.
After the session, it was disclosed that Hughes had completed qualifying without his car's fire extinguisher being armed, which resulted in him being disqualified.
That meant that hehind Evans and Vergne on the front row and Wehrlein third, Mueller will start fourth with Rowland occupying fifth the grid. Bird will line up sixth, alongside Guenther, with Cassidy in eighth alongside fellow Jaguar powertrain runner Robin Frijns. Frijns' Envision Racing teammate Buemi will start 10th, ahead of Fenestraz, Nato, da Costa, and Mortara.
Di Grassi will start 15th, with Ticktum 16th, Vandoorne a lowly 17th despite his DS Penske teammate Vergne competing at the sharp end, and Dennis 18th in what is his worst qualifying performance of the season so far. Daruvala, de Vries, and Sette Camara complete the grid ahead of the disqualified Hughes.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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