Mitch Evans claimed his second Formula E career pole for Jaguar in qualifying for the Santiago E-Prix, narrowly beating BMW’s Maximiliam Gunther in a frantic superpole shoot-out.
Evans had set the fastest time of the field in his first qualifying attempt – having been allocated to group three – and was the final driver to run in superpole, snatching the top spot by a margin of 0.275s from Gunther.
Gunther, who ran penultimately, had held provisional pole from Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein and was briefly under investigation for leaving the pit exit under a red light but was cleared and will start the race from the second place on the grid.
Venturi driver Felipe Massa will start the race alongside Wehrlein in fourth, having set an identical lap time, while NIO’s Oliver Turvey will start fifth after a stand-out performance in group four earned him a spot in the superpole shootout.
Sebastien Buemi completes the top six, having lost grip in the final sector of his fast lap. Edoardo Mortara just missed out on a spot in superpole for Venturi and will start seventh, having also briefly held pole after an impressive initial run in group two where he narrowly avoided Robin Frijns who suffered a spin.
Both Mercedes cars of Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne missed out on superpole and will start seventh and eight respectively, with reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne in tenth for Techeetah. Neel Jani completes the top 10 for Porsche.
Championship leader Alexander Sims will start 13th, just behind Daniel Abt and Andre Lotterer. Oliver Rowland crashed his Nissan heavily in the first qualifying group, meaning that he will start the race from 22nd on the grid.
That accident impeded Audi’s Lucas di Grassi, who had to abort his fast lap to take avoidance of the debris. Di Grassi will start the race in 23rd, ahead of Ma Quing Hua who failed to run in qualifying following his FP2 crash.
