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Wehrlein secures pole for Berlin Race 2
Pascal Wehrlein was untouchable in qualifying for the second race of the Berlin E-Prix as he secured Porsche’s first pole on home soil in Formula E, in what was the first session of the weekend to take place in dry and sunny conditions.
The reigning champion was the only driver to break the 58-second barrier throughout qualifying, and took the top spot with a 57.850s lap in the final of the head-to-head Duels, beating Cupra Kiro driver Dan Ticktum by 0.158s.
Ahead of the final, Wehrlein topped the second Group session, then beat fellow German Nico Mueller – running a Porsche customer Andretti – by a huge 0.618s margin in his fist Duel. He then defeated his TAG Heuer Porsche teammate Antonio Felix da Costa with the fastest lap of the weekend so far, a 57.756. That also gave him another margin of over six tenths, with his lap being 0.648s quicker than da Costa's.
Ticktum made it to the Duels after going fourth quickest in the opening Group. He was later promoted to third after Jake Hughes had his fastest time deleted. The Maserati MSG driver's brake pedal went to the floor in the final minute of the session, sending him into the wall at Turn 1. Hughes’ lap time deletion provided a reprieve for Oliver Rowland whose last lap was only good enough for fifth, with only the top-four from each group advancing to the Duels.
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Behind the front row of Wehrlein and Ticktum, Rowland and da Costa will start third and fourth, with Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns – beaten by da Costa in the first round of Duels – fifth.
Mueller will line up sixth, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne who, after topping the first Group, fell to Rowland in the first Duel. Rowland will start eighth due to his five-race penalty for causing a collision in Race 1
Barnard will start ninth with Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans, who just missed out on advancing from the Group stage by 0.030s, in 10th ahead of Maximilian Guenther, Edoardo Mortara, Hughes, David Beckmann, and Zane Maloney.
Sam Bird will start the race from 15th, with Jake Dennis 16th, Sebastien Buemi 17th, and Jean Eric Vergne 18th.
Stand-ins Felipe Drugovich and Sergio Sette Camara, and Nick Cassidy completed those who lapped in qualifying, with Lucas di Grassi classified 22nd and last after failing to take to the track as a result of his FP3 crash.
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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