until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Porsche claimed its first Formula E pole courtesy of Andre Lotterer in qualifying for the Mexico City E-Prix.
Former DS Techeetah driver Lotterer had started the session by giving Porsche its first super pole appearance, and he went on to secure pole itself with a 1m07.922s lap.
Santiago polesitter and group stages pacesetter Mitch Evans came very close to making it two poles in a row for himself and Jaguar but was 0.063s shy of Lotterer.
Though Pascal Wehrlein was third quickest, he will fall to the back of the grid due to the massive penalties both Mahindras have picked up over gearbox issues.
Mercedes was again in the super pole mix with Nyck de Vries going fourth fastest ahead of Sebastien Buemi’s Nissan e.dams.
Sam Bird managed to get through from group one qualifying to super pole but could not do better than sixth in the shootout.
Virgin almost had both cars in super pole but Robin Frijns was edged out by the final group runners and will start seventh ahead of Nico Muller.
Reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne was again venting his frustration over DS Techeetah radio as he ended up ninth, followed by team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa.
Track evolution was expected to be less dramatic in Mexico than at other Formula E venues, potentially making being in qualifying group one not as costly as usual.
But with Daniel Abt’s barrier-damaging first practice crash leading to the cancellation of the Jaguar IPACE qualifying session, there had been less running to clean the track before FE qualifying than expected – meaning the championship leaders were still up against it in the first group.
Though that didn’t stop Bird’s star performance, points leader Stoffel Vandoorne ended up 11th for Mercedes.
The BMWs of Maximilian Gunther and Alexander Sims – both race-winners this season – were slowest in group one and qualified down in 18th and 20th, with Lucas di Grassi’s Audi just one place ahead of Gunther in 17th.
Felipe Massa had a messy qualifying run and could only manage 21st.
Of the three drivers behind Massa, only Ma Qing Hua actually completed a qualifying lap.
His NIO team-mate Oliver Turvey’s car had a technical problem while Abt missed qualifying as he travelled back from hospital after the precautionary checks prompted by his heavy morning crash.
