Nick Cassidy took pole position at the first New York E-Prix, which will start this Saturday evening.
A old-fashioned circuit in the eyes of pilots, by its bumps and its tarmac not always in excellent condition, which is more washed by the showers of the day before, all in Brooklyn: this is to set the scene for this first qualifying session of the New York weekend. A priori not good news for the pilots passing among the first, with a composition of the groups always determined by the championship standings.
Group 1: Mortara, Frijns, Félix da Costa, Rast, Evans, De Vries
Group 2: Vandoorne, Dennis, Rowland, Vergne, Bird, Wehrlein
Group 3: Di Grassi, Cassidy, Sims, Lynn, Günther, Lotterer
Group 4: Turvey, Sette Câmara, Buemi, Nato, Blomqvist, Eriksson
On this dry but constantly evolving track, everyone tried to do the best they could, Robin Frijns setting the reference time in Group 1 in 1’10’063, with 93 thousandths ahead of Antônio Félix da Costa. The traffic will have played its part in this first passage, the leader of the championship Edoardo Mortara finding himself under investigation for having embarrassed René Rast for a long time. The Venturi pilot had to deal with only 200 kW of power instead of the 250 kW allocated .
Victim of a big exit from the track during free practice earlier in the day, Sam Bird was able to count on his team to allow him to appear at the start of Group 2, in which Jean-Éric Vergne also shifted his strategy by coming out well behind its competitors. Playing too much with the positioning in the preparation laps, a collision finally occurred between Oliver Rowland and Sam Bird, causing a red flag due to the immobilization of the Nissan e.dams and the Jaguar.
The six drivers were able to leave a few minutes later to try their luck again in this group. Vergne, Wehrlein and Rowland were the strongest, the French taking the lead in 1’09 “599 with 68 thousandths ahead of the German and 0” 292 over the Briton.
Wiser, Group 3 still allowed four of its residents to temporarily enter the top 6, Nick Cassidy pointing second ahead of Maximilian Günther, Alex Lynn and Lucas di Grassi. In Group 4, only Sébastien Buemi managed to get his ticket to the Super Pole, and in a good way since the Swiss clocked the best time in 1’09 “531, ejecting Di Grassi from the first six places at the same time.
First in line to try to get pole position, Lynn set the new benchmark in 1’09 “538, a time that Günther failed to beat, down by 76 thousandths. On the other hand, Cassidy improved this mark with a lap of 1’09 “338 which granted him the provisional pole, while Wehrlein failed at 0” 414 from the Virgin pilot. Despite a very big attack, Vergne set a time at 0 “161 from the future pole-sitter, because Buemi did not manage to do better either, pointing to 0 “375.
For the second time in his career, and after a first in Rome this year, Cassidy will therefore start from pole position shortly. The first race will start at 22:34.
Super Pole
Qualifications by groups
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