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Evans wins pole for London E-Prix opener
Mitch Evans will start the first race of the London E-Prix from pole position after defeating Nyck de Vries in the final of the qualifying Duels. It was the second pole in as many weekends for Evans, and second consecutive R1 pole for him in London.
The Jaguar TCS Racing driver’s lap of 1m07.205 – the fastest lap time of the weekend so far – was 0.174s quicker than Mahindra’s de Vries, who was quicker in the first two sectors, but lost time in Turn 16, which ultimately proved to be his undoing.
Evans made it through to the Duels final after finishing second in the second Group session. He then beat Jake Hughes in his first head-to-head, and outgoing champion and Group B pacesetter Pascal Wehrlein in the Semifinals. Wehrlein was quicker in the final part of the lap, but it wasn't enough to overthrow Evans who bettered him in the first two sectors.
De Vries was third in the first Group behind Nick Cassidy and Maximilian Guenther, then defeated Maximilian Guenther in his first Duel and Dan Ticktum in a back-and-forth semi. De Vries was quickest in Sector 1 before Ticktum pulled it back in the second, but it was de Vries who prevailed by just 0.009s.
Evans' pole is his second in three races and Jaguar's fifth consecutive one at the ExCeL London. Behind the front row of him and de Vries will be Wehrlein and Ticktum, with Cassidy and Guenther fifth and sixth.
The Maserati MSG Racing cars of Stoffel Vandoorne and Hughes occupy the fourth row of the grid as the last of the eight drivers who made it to the Duels.
Edoardo Mortara will start ninth, ahead of the Andrettis of Nico Mueller and Jake Dennis, with recently crowned champion Oliver Rowland the highest-placed Nissan runner in 12th as none of the four cars running the Japanese brand's powertrains – the factory team and NEOM McLaren – all failing to advance from the Groups.
David Beckmann will start 13th, ahead of Taylor Barnard, Jean-Eric Vergne, Norman Nato, Antonio Felix da Costa and the Envision Racing entries of Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns.
Sam Bird, and the Lola Yamaha Abts of Lucas di Grassi and Zane Maloney complete the field.
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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