Mortara grabs Jeddah E-Prix pole

Edoardo Mortara scored his and Mahindra’s first Formula E pole position since the first race of the 2024 Berlin E-Prix after beating Maximilian Guenther in the final of the head-to-head qualifying Duels.

Mortara’s final time of 1m15.336s was 0.111 quicker than Guenther, despite clipping the wall at Turn 13 during his lap, with a stronger final sector time from the DS Penske driver not enough to undo Mortara’s advantage.

Mortara started qualifying by topping the first of the two 10-minute Group sessions ahead of Norman Nato, Nico Mueller, and Jean-Eric Vergne. He then comfortably beat Porsche driver Mueller by 0.377s in his first Duel, before disposing of Nato by 0.234s in the Semifinals, a strong final sector from the Nissan driver not enough to claw back time, much like the final.

Guenther meanwhile took third in Group B, behind Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein – who deployed an off-sequence strategy which enabled him to do three push laps rather than two like everyone else – Jaguar TCS Racing’s Antonio Felix da Costa, and ahead of his teammate Taylor Barnard.

Da Costa was first to fall to Guenther in the Duels, his lack of 350kW running in practice leaving him 0.213s off. Guenther then disposed of Wehrlein in the Semifinals after the Porsche driver had an oversteer moment at Turn 13.

Behind Mortara and Guenther, Wehrlein will line up third, ahead of Nato, Barnard, da Costa, Mueller and Citroen Racing’s Vergne.

Andretti’s Jake Dennis is the highest of the drivers who didn't make it to the Duels in ninth, his last lap in Group A not enough to move him above fifth. He was unhappy with his tires in the session, which were a new set and weren't giving him the same sort of performance he'd had in practice.

Mitch Evans will start 10th in the other Jaguar after being pipped to fourth in Group B by Barnard by just 0.001s. Nyck de Vries will start 11th for Mahindra after aborting his final Group session lap due to traffic, ahead of Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum and Nick Cassidy, who couldn’t get a clear enough track to set a good time in his Citroen during the Group stage.

Joel Eriksson lines up 14th for Envision Racing, ahead of Kiro’s Pepe Marti and Oliver Rowland (Nissan), who got back out on track after his practice crash, but lost time in Sector 2, then pushing to recover from that, had a slide in the final turn.

Felipe Drugovich (Andretti) will start 17th, ahead of Sebastien Buemi (Envision) who failed to get a good time on the board in the Group stage, with the Lola Yamaha Abts of Zane Maloney and Lucas di Grassi occupying the last row of the grid.

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