As expected it was an eDams lockout for the first ePrix of the season with Sebastien Buemi securing pole position in Beijing. He had set the fastest time in the familiar group qualifying session, before taking pole position in the new SuperPole.
There were plenty of mistakes from both sessions including Nelson Piquet Jr who will start from the back of the field and Jean-Eric Vergne who will start from fifth after locking up in the SuperPole.
Group 1
Simona de Silvestro, Andretti Formula E
Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV TCR
Daniel Abt, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
The first group of qualifying included two drivers who had problems through practice, Simona de Silvestro who crashed during Practice 2 and reigning Champion Nelson Piquet Jr who had a throttle failure in Practice 1.
Following Daniel Abt closely on the 170kw lap, Piquet Jr had several oversteer moments before falling back to concentrate on his only 200kw effort. He had a major sideways moment at the start of his proper lap, locking up everywhere around the Beijing circuit. The Brazilian lost nearly a second to Abt by the middle sector of the fast lap, with the German setting the fastest time from de Silvestro, who set a fast time straight away. Da Costa went faster than Piquet, with the champion relegated to fourth.
Group 2
Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing
Lucas di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing
Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi
Nicolas Prost, Renault e.dams
The two Mahindra drivers left the pitlane together, with the ABT of di Grassi further up the road. The Brazilian locked his brakes into the first corner on his 170kw lap, but overall it was a tidy warm up, slowing down towards the end to set up for the fast lap.
The first sector was half a second faster than his teammate Abt who was fastest in the first group. That gap remained in the second sector, with Prost behind going even faster. It was a 1:38.5 for di Grassi, beaten by Prost by three-tenths. Heidfeld went second quickest and faster than di Grassi, with Sarrazin fourth and Senna fifth. All of the times were still significantly slower than the morning session.
Group 3
Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing
Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams
Jacques Villeneuve, Venturi
Nathanael Berthon, Team Aguri
In an all French-speaking group, it was a neat start of the session. Villeneuve set the fastest 170kw lap in the Dragon.
It was Buemi on his 200kw lap though who went a couple of tenths faster than his teammate, Vergne was also close to the eDams driver at the end of the first sector. The gap between the eDams teammates increased to over half a second by the end of the second sector, increasing to seven-tenths by the end of the lap. It was second fastest for Vergne to split the two eDams drivers, with Villeneuve in ninth and Berthon in twelfth, still faster than Piquet Jr.
Group 4
Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR
Loic Duval, Dragon Racing
Robin Frijns, Andretti Formula E
Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
The final qualifying group went out, with a competitive set of drivers. Dragon had been looking surprisingly good in practice, along with Sam Bird.
D’Ambrosio led the way, heading on to his 200kw lap and knocked the wall in the second corner. He lost half a second in the process, and the other Dragon car of Loic Duval was also slow. D’Ambrosio only went eighth, only to be deposed by his team mate, with Turvey thirteenth and Sam Bird in ninth. Robin Frijns in the Andretti could only end up thirteenth, so the top of the field was not touched.
SuperPole
The shootout would be contested by di Grassi in fifth, Heidfeld in fourth, Prost in third, Vergne in second and Buemi who set the fastest time in the group sessions.
With the SuperPole seeing each driver released a lap at a time, starting with the fifth fastest driver, today starting the session with Luas di Grassi. With only one lap, the Brazilian was straight on the pace using 200kw. The Brazilian had a large lock-up into the first corner, losing a second in the process. He was also too quick into the final chicane, losing more time in the process, setting a 1:39.5.
Next up Nick Heidfeld, who had a neater first corner than the ABT driver. Given the mistake of di Grassi, he was seven-tenths faster in the first sector, before losing a couple of tenths in the second sector. It was a 1:38.3 for Heidfeld, a full 1.2 seconds faster to keep his fourth place. The German said after his qualifying lap that he didn’t expect to race with ABT drivers.
Nico Prost was next up, who set the third fastest time in the group qualifying. On his warm up lap, he had a large lock-up into the final chicane. It was a tidy start to the lap from Prost, and set a 32.0 in the first sector, grazing the tech-pro barrier on the exit of the chicane. He retained his lead in the middle sector, increasing the gap to seven-tenths and kept that over the line.
It was all over before it began for Jean-Eric Vergne, locking up into the first corner and having to reverse out of the runoff. He wasn’t happy, complaining over the radio about the brakes.
The session would be decided between the two eDams drivers, Buemi the faster of the two during the group qualifying session. The Swiss driver didn’t have the same problems as some of the others in the first corner and went on to set the fastest first sector by two-tenths of a second, but lost time in the first chicane. He locked up into the second chicane. He was a tenth down by the end of the second sector, but he made that up to go faster by a couple of tenths from his teammate.
