Evans needs miracle to deny Vandoorne title after qualifying

Stoffel Vandoorne and Mercedes should face a straightforward run to the 2022 Formula E World Championship in the Seoul finale after Mitch Evans only managed to qualify 13th for the decider – nine places behind the points leader.

With a 21-point deficit to Vandoorne, Evans ideally needed the three bonus points for pole and for his rival to be well down the order.

But Evans and Jaguar – who had dominated Saturday’s wet-to-dry race – simply lacked pace in the dry Sunday qualifying session.

He was only sixth after the first runs in his qualifying group, and though he jumped to second with a wall-banging final effort, improvements by others pushed him back to an eliminated seventh that translates to 13th on the final grid.

“Ahh mate, I screwed up so bad in the first sector,” said Evans to engineer Josep Roca over the radio after the lap. “We’re just not good enough in these conditions. We’re just lacking.”

Vandoorne’s session was far smoother. He was a close second to Edoardo Mortara in group A and cruised past Jean-Eric Vergne in a quarter-final duel made easy by Vergne locking up and running wide at Turn 1.

Mortara beat Vandoorne in the semi-finals, but fourth on the grid between Jake Dennis and Robin Frijns leaves the Mercedes driver well-placed given he now only needs eighth place even if Evans is able to come through from 13th to the victory he has to take to have any chance of the title.

Pole went to Antonio Felix da Costa in the final race for the DS Techeetah partnership. The DS factory deal moves to what’s currently Dragon Penske next season, with Techeetah’s future uncertain. Da Costa is moving to Porsche in a deal expected to be announced soon.

Mortara could’ve done with pole to get three points for Venturi in its long-shot bid to deny its supplier Mercedes the teams’ title. It’s 31 points behind, and starts second with Mortara and sixth with Lucas di Grassi, with Mercedes fourth with Vandoorne and 12th for Nyck de Vries in a car heavily rebuilt after Saturday’s dramatic crash.

Dan Ticktum was the hero of qualifying as he got NIO 333 into the duels for the first time. He starts seventh, having lost out to Mortara in the quarter-finals.

With Antonio Giovinazzi’s Formula E stint ending one race early due to a hand injury, 2023 Nissan signing Sacha Fenestraz gets an early debut as a stand-in with Dragon Penske, having been loaned from Jaguar reserve duties. He starts 21st, while Sergio Sette Camara qualified strongly for Dragon again in 10th.

Saturday polesitter and podium finisher Oliver Rowland came back down to earth in the dry conditions and starts 18th. His Mahindra team-mate Alexander Sims bids farewell to Formula E from last on the grid having got a 60-place penalty for component changes required after his race one crash.

Qualifying Results