FE | Vergne takes first pole in Shanghai, Rowland follows

Vergne made the difference with an excellent first sector at the Shanghai International Circuit, where Formula E made its debut racing on the same track used by Formula 1 for the Chinese Grand Prix, despite using a shorter configuration.

Despite losing some time to Nissan’s Rowland in the final two sectors, Vergne’s 1:13.322s, the fastest time of all qualifying, was enough to secure his second pole of the season following that of Diriyah at the start of the championship.

Mitch Evans will start third for Jaguar, who missed out on a place in the final by just 0.001s against Rowland. Alongside him will be Pascal Wehrlein with the Porsche, whose small mistake in the last sector cost him elimination in the second semi-final against Vergne, despite the German leading by around a tenth up to that point.

Wehrlein had progressed through to the semi-finals after setting the fastest time in the quarter-finals with a 1:13.449s, which was enough to beat McLaren’s Jake Hughes by 34 thousandths.

Wehrlein’s teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa, missed out on reaching the quarter-finals by just 6 thousandths of a second against Vergne, demonstrating how close the final gaps were: however, in reality, the Frenchman from DS could initially count on an advantage of over two tenths, largely exploited in the final sector after an oversteer at turn 8.

Rowland beat Norman Nato by 68 thousandths, while Evans advanced at the expense of Stoffel Vandoorne’s second DS Penske by a margin of almost three tenths, with the Belgian starting eighth.

Current championship leader Nick Cassidy missed out on a place in the duels by just 0.009s, as less than three tenths covered all 11 drivers in the qualifying starting group. Sebastien Buemi of Envision, Maximillian Guenther with the Maserati MSG, Lucas di Grassi in the Abt and Dan Ticktum with the ERT did not make it through either.

The second Maserati MSG of Jehan Daruvala also failed to progress in the standings, being eliminated in the rounds: the Indian driver came close to colliding with Cassidy at the exit of turn 9 during a flying lap, while Sacha Fenestraz in the other Nissan did not he managed to go beyond the last row, in a situation essentially the opposite of that of his teammate.

In the first group, Vandoorne set the fastest time, 1:14.242s, joined by Rowland, Nato and Evans in the duels. Instead, Hughes was marginally faster in the second group with a 1:14.140s, followed by Vergne, da Costa and Wehrlein, with Robin Frijns trailing the Porsche German by just 90 thousandths, but first of the eliminated. Among those excluded from group B are also the reigning champion Jake Dennis (Andretti), Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) and Nico Muller with the Abt Cupra, who returns to his car after missing the Berlin stage due to the coincidence with the 6 hours of Spa.

Sergio Sette Camara, Sam Bird (on his return after recovering from a broken hand) and Edoardo Mortara’s second Mahindra complete the ranking.

Shanghai E-Prix qualifying results