Buemi on pole for Mexico City E-Prix

Sebastien Buemi claimed pole position for the Mexico City E-Prix after Taylor Barnard had his lap time deleted in the Duels final.

DS Penske driver Barnard set a time of 1m05.135, 0.114s quicker than Buemi’s effort, but exceeded track limits in the final corner – after also brushing the wall at Turns 1 and 9 – handing pole and the three championship points that come with it to the Envision Racing driver.

Buemi was strong throughout qualifying but employed a conservative approach through the first sector, only to perform strongly in the remaining two in each of his runs. That approach gave him top spot in the second group, ahead of Dan Ticktum, Mitch Evans and Oliver Rowland. He then disposed of Nissan’s Rowland and Jaguar TCS Racing driver Evans in his first two Duels to get to the Final.

Barnard finished third in the first group session behind Sao Paulo winner Jake Dennis and Porsche’s Nico Müller, but ahead of Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, having been the only driver to improve on his second push lap – that improvement coming after he was the only driver to change tires between his two push laps. He then defeated Müller in his first Duel, recovering from a mistake at Turn 1 to beat the Porsche driver by 0.137s. Barnard then took on Mortara in the SemiFinals and while both were scrappy in the final turn, the Briton narrowly avoided breaching track limits to win by 0.201s.

Buemi's pole is the 17th of his Formula E career – equaling Jean-Eric Vergne's all-time record – and his first since the first race of the 2023 Berlin E-Prix.

Behind Barnard in second, Mortara will start Saturday's race in third, ahead of Evans, Müller, Ticktum, Dennis and Rowland. Maximilian Guenther will line up ninth after narrowly missing out on advancing from Group B.

Similarly, da Costa finished fifth in Group A, giving him the 10th spot on the grid, but he was at least able to complete trouble-free running after a DC-DC unit issue prevented him from taking to the track in the morning's practice session.

Pascal Wehrlein, a four-time polesitter in Mexico City, was a shock omission from the Duels after finishing sixth in Group B. He will start the race 11th, ahead of Norman Nato, and Lucas di Grassi.

Nick Cassidy had his first Group session lap deleted for exceeding track limits, then couldn't set one quick enough to advance to the head-to-head stage on his second run. He will start 14th, ahead of Felipe Drugovich who will have a three-place grid penalty for passing Wehrlein and Cassidy under full course yellows in December's Sao Paulo E-Prix. That'll promote Vergne to 15th, with Zane Maloney 16th, and Joel Eriksson 17th.

Nyck de Vries and Pepe Marti will complete the grid, Marti serving a back-of-the-grid penalty for his role in the red flag-causing crash in Sao Paulo. He'll also serve a stop-and-go penalty in the race for a change of drivetrain after FP2.

Today's race airs at 3:05pm ET on Roku Network

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