The world champion strikes back: Jake Dennis secured first place on the grid on Sunday in qualifying for the second race in Berlin (live today from 3:00 p.m. on DF1) this weekend, including three points for pole position. For the 28-year-old, it is the sixth pole in Formula E and the first since July 16, 2023 at the Rome ePrix. And that after Dennis had recently missed the qualifying duels four times in a row.
In the final of the duel phase, the driver from the Porsche customer team Andretti beat Saturday’s winner Nick Cassidy in the Jaguar with a time of 1:01.819 minutes and was 0.078 seconds slower than Saturday’s pole time. “What a turnaround for the team,” said a visibly relaxed Dennis after the end of the hunt for times. “To know that I can still do it and do a round like that is very special.”
Cassidy ended up 0.231 seconds short of Dennis’ time. The New Zealander is tackling the second Berlin ePrix from second place. Previously, both drivers had had to compete against their respective teammates in an unusual manner and beat them. Third place went to Dennis’ teammate Norman Nato, who will start directly in front of Mitch Evans in the second factory Jaguar. For NATO, which has so far only been able to make it into the duel phase of the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia, it is the best starting position of the year.
Qualifying meaningless again?
Apart from the three championship points for pole-sitter Edoardo Mortara, yesterday’s qualifying seemed meaningless in view of the race. The massive energy saving battle ensured that the drivers waved past each other without a fight for a large part of the race and that the tactical positioning on the track and the energy levels were much more important than the starting positions.
“We will see something very similar,” said the Porsche works driver Pascal Wehrlein before qualifying on international TV. “Maybe it will be a little better, but we’re doing qualifying for the three points and not for the starting position.” At least in terms of the dimensions of the energy saving battle, Sunday’s race should be a little more conservative. The number of racing laps in the second Berlin race is two laps shorter with 38 laps – with the total available energy remaining the same. “So maybe there won’t be as extreme a Peloton effect as we’ve seen, but there will still be a Peloton effect,” said Jaguar team boss James Barclay.
Wehrlein and Günther fail again in the top 4
Behind Evans, Stoffel Vandoorne followed in fifth place in the DS Penske as the fastest driver who was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Like on Saturday, it was also over in the quarter-finals for the two local heroes, Maximilian Günther (Maserati-DS) and Wehrlein. Günther from Allgäu will start the second Berlin ePrix from sixth place, while Wehrlein will take seventh place on the grid.
However, Wehrlein had to survive a brief moment of shock after his departure. The race management briefly investigated a possible technical violation by the six-time ePrix winner. However, the investigation was abandoned just five minutes later. Vandoorne, however, is still under investigation for a possible technical violation. The top eight was completed by Saturday’s pole setter Mortara in a Mahindra.
Jean-Eric Vergne followed in ninth place, finishing fifth in his qualifying group and narrowly missing out on the duels, thus causing a surprise. In the previous nine events, the Frenchman had only failed to reach the duels twice. Wehrlein’s teammate Antonio Felix da Costa also missed the duel phase (tenth on the grid) as fifth in his qualifying group. The 2020 Formula E champion was 0.062 seconds short of making it into the top 8. This meant that Felix da Costa had to admit defeat to Wehrlein in the tenth qualifying session of the year.
Abt-Cupra misses the duels
For the German team Abt-Cupra, qualifying did not go as hoped after a disappointing race on Saturday. The two Kempten pilots were eliminated in the group phase. Lucas Di Grassi was only able to secure the sixth fastest time in his qualifying group and starts from twelfth position.
Kelvin van der Linde, who replaced regular driver Nico Müller this weekend, had an even less successful time hunt. The South African set the slowest time in his qualifying group and is 21st on the grid. Van der Linde was 0.240 seconds behind teammate Di Grassi.
In addition to Müller, four other regular Formula E drivers are missing this weekend. Sam Bird (McLaren-Nissan) is still missing after breaking his hand in Monaco training two weeks ago and will again be represented by Taylor Barnard. In addition, four regular drivers, including Müller, started the WEC race in Spa yesterday and will also miss Sunday’s race. Joel Eriksson (Envision-Jaguar), who is contesting his tenth Formula E race today, was able to achieve the best starting position of the replacement drivers for the race. The Swede secured eleventh place.
Wehrlein competitor again with qualifying problems
Oliver Rowland (Nissan), third in the championship, also had to look back on a disappointing qualifying. The Brit was only able to secure 16th place on the grid. “I’ve stumbled over a lap since we got here,” Rowland said after qualifying ended. It is the fourth race in a row in which the 31-year-old missed the qualifying duels.
For ERT driver Dan Ticktum, who had cleared Lucas Di Grassi (Abt-Cupra) in Saturday’s race, the starting position was already clear before the start of qualifying. The gearbox and the engine control unit on his car were changed, and the number of components permitted over the season was exceeded. For this, Tickum received two penalty transfers of 20 starting places each. The 24-year-old will start from last place after originally qualifying in 18th place. However, since there are more than eleven penalty starting positions outstanding, Ticktum has to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty during the race.