Jake Dennis took pole position in the London ePrix at his home race to the delight of the fans, beating world leader Stoffel Vandoorne in the final.
Stoffel Vandoorne kicked off Saturday’s battle for pole but Jake Dennis, who was running second, built up a slim lead in the first sector when the Belgian got too close to the Turn 2 barrier.
Dennis then opened up a gap, and although a slight skid in the closing corners helped Vandoorne make up some time, the Avalanche driver Andretti did enough to take his second Formula E pole position.
The British driver, who on Friday said it would be “difficult” to repeat his 2021 victory, had already avoided a Mercedes final, as with a 1:13.005 he managed to kick Nyck de Vries out of it.
The defending champion will occupy third position on the grid after setting a faster time in the semi-final than Sergio Sette Camara.
Sette Camara had caused an upset in the semi-finals, but was unable to overcome Vandoorne’s great lap of 1:13.131 – more than 0.3 seconds quicker than his rival from Dragon Penske.
Vandoorne needed to come from behind in a hard-fought quarter-final match with Andre Lotterer, who was 0.01s ahead of him at the close of the first sector, but he couldn’t keep up that pace and began to fall behind, to reach a difference of almost four tenths second at the finish line in favor of Vandoorne.
Sette Camara secured his first appearance in the semi-finals by beating Oliver Askew in their duel, beating the American by nearly a quarter of a second in the first sector and opening the gap to post a time of 1:13.330 to Askew’s 1:13.688 .
De Vries was the second Mercedes in the semi-finals, having built a 0.4s lead over New York winner Nick Cassidy, as the Envision driver hit the wall on his lap and lost time, so the Kiwi he was deprived of a third successive opportunity to score pole points.
Sergio Sette Camara, Dragon Penske Autosport, Penske EV-5
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Dennis then set the fastest time of the quarter-final, with a lap of 1:13.225 to beat Maximilian Guenther to enter the final four. The German would enter at the last minute, since Lucas di Grassi lost his times from the group stage.
Askew’s fastest time among the drivers eliminated puts him fifth on the starting grid, ahead of Guenther, while Cassidy is ahead of Lotterer on row four.
The two Jaguars were unable to get past Group A as Mitch Evans lost time by locking his wheels in the first sector and was unable to get through.
Guenther fell just short of entering the duels, and although Vandoorne’s final lap was enough to knock the German out of the top four, di Grassi had his times wiped for hampering Robin Frijns, leading to him protest angrily in front of the cameras. The Brazilian will start from the bottom of the grid.
Neither Venturi was able to progress to the quarter-finals as Edoardo Mortara struggled with grip and confidence on his final lap, finishing fifth in his group.
Behind were the two DS Techeetahs, as neither Antonio Felix da Costa nor Jean-Eric Vergne were able to make it into the bottom eight, which was a minor blow to the latter’s title bid, after a scoreless weekend. In New York.
Mortara will thus start ninth on the grid, ahead of Frijns, fifth fastest in Group A, with the DS Techeetah and Jaguar filling the next two rows.
Da Costa will start ahead of Sam Bird in 11th and 12th position, with Vergne ahead of Evans on the row behind.
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