Vergne and da Costa fill front row for Berlin Formula E opener

DS Techeetah pair Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa grabbed the front row for the first leg of Formula E’s Berlin title decider, in a bad session for Mercedes and Robin Frijns’ chances.

With the track swept after Friday afternoon practice but not between practice two and qualifying, and the concrete Tempelhof surface always a curveball, the usual Formula E qualifying script was substantially skewed and the superpole sextet featured drivers from all four qualifying groups rather than favouring only later runners as usual.

Double champion Vergne was fastest in both group qualifying (from group 2) and superpole, earning him all four bonus points and moving him up to 10th in the standings – 23 points from leader Nyck de Vries.

He pipped reigning champion team-mate da Costa – who had reached superpole from group 1 – by 0.073s to claim pole.

Lucas di Grassi (13th in the championship, 33 points off) qualified third on Audi’s farewell weekend, ahead of fellow title contender Edoardo Mortara’s Venturi Mercedes. Mortara is currently 21 points from the championship lead in ninth place.

The two group 4 interlopers in superpole – Norman Nato and Sebastien Buemi, both out of title contention – share row three.

Mercedes had a car in group 1 and a car in group 3, yet both struggled to find grip.

Championship leader Nyck de Vries starts only 19th and Stoffel Vandoorne’s long-shot title bid is surely over after he managed just 22nd place.

Robin Frijns, currently second in the points, slewed wide at the first corner on his group 1 lap and starts right back in 23rd for teams’ championship leader Envision Virgin. His team-mate Nick Cassidy qualified 13th.

Miserable Berlin form crushed Jaguar’s title bid last season but it’s still in with a shout this time. Though a three-place grid penalty for hitting Nato in London leaves Sam Bird (third in the points) starting 15th, Mitch Evans got within 0.013s of a superpole place from group 2 and starts seventh.

Practice pacesetter Jake Dennis was eighth from group 1, his and Maximilian Guenther’s BMWs sandwiching Pascal Wehrlein in the best-placed Porsche.

Alex Lynn’s London win put him into sixth in the championship and therefore group 1. He could only manage 21st on the grid for Mahindra.

Qualifying Results