Antonio Felix Da Costa has claimed his first pole position for DS Techeetah, edging out the BMW I Andretti Motorsport car of Max Gunther.
Da Costa was the third driver to go out in Superpole and posted the fastest time, four tenths quicker than the Mercedes of Nyck De Vries, and the DS Techeetah driver looked set to comfortably take pole position until Gunther went out for his flying lap at the end of the session.
Gunther matched Felix Da Costa’s first split, and in the second sector he was nearly two tenths faster, but he locked up at Turn 11, which cost the BMW driver two tenths, and he ended up crossing the line 0.069s down on the DS Techeetah driver’s time.
Andre Lotterer continued his strong qualifying form from Mexico to take third place, while the Mercedes of De Vries set the fourth fastest time, despite running with some minor damage after he clipped the wall in group qualifying.
Eduardo Mortara set a time of 1m17.803s to go fifth in his ROKit Venturi Racing car, while the Nissan of Sebastien Buemi was the slowest driver in Superpole, having gone out first.
The Mahindra of Jerome d’Ambrosio just missed out on Superpole and will start the race from seventh, while the BMW i Andretti Motorsport of Alex Sims could only do enough for eighth position.
Oliver Rowland was just 0.009s behind Sims to go ninth fastest, while James Calado put in an impressive time from Group 3 in his Jaguar to round out the top ten.
Calado’s team-mate Mitch Evans had a session to forget after failing to set a time and he will start the race from last.
Evans made the decision to only do one run and his team held him in the garage until the last possible moment, and while it looked like he would have enough time to cross the line to start his flying lap, he missed the start/finish line by a matter of tenths, meaning he was unable to set a fast lap.
Marrakesh E-Prix Qualifying Results
Position | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | A. DA COSTA | DS TECHEETAH | 1:17.158 |
2 | M. GÜNTHER | BMW I ANDRETTI MOTORSPORT | +0.069 |
3 | A. LOTTERER | TAG HEUER PORSCHE | +0.095 |
4 | N. DE VRIES | MERCEDES-BENZ | +0.432 |
5 | E. MORTARA | ROKIT VENTURI RACING | +0.645 |
6 | S. BUEMI | NISSAN E.DAMS | +0.653 |
7 | J. D’AMBROSIO | MAHINDRA RACING | 1:17.798 |
8 | A. SIMS | BMW I ANDRETTI MOTORSPORT | +0.032 |
9 | O. ROWLAND | NISSAN E.DAMS | +0.041 |
10 | J. CALADO | PANASONIC JAGUAR RACING | +0.069 |
11 | J. VERGNE | DS TECHEETAH | +0.130 |
12 | B. HARTLEY | GEOX DRAGON | +0.146 |
13 | L. DI GRASSI | AUDI SPORT ABT SCHAEFFLER | +0.160 |
14 | R. FRIJNS | ENVISION VIRGIN RACING | +0.249 |
15 | S. BIRD | ENVISION VIRGIN RACING | +0.266 |
16 | P. WEHRLEIN | MAHINDRA RACING | +0.271 |
17 | N. MÜLLER | GEOX DRAGON | +0.405 |
18 | S. VANDOORNE | MERCEDES-BENZ | +0.42 |
19 | D. ABT | AUDI SPORT ABT SCHAEFFLER | +0.431 |
20 | O. TURVEY | NIO 333 FE TEAM | +0.515 |
21 | N. JANI | TAG HEUER PORSCHE | +0.758 |
22 | F. MASSA | ROKIT VENTURI RACING | +0.877 |
23 | MA QINGHUA | NIO 333 FE TEAM | +1.561 |
24 | M. EVANS | PANASONIC JAGUAR RACING | NO TIME |
[…] After losing out in the battle to Felix Da Costa, Gunther found himself in a battle for second with the second DS Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne, who rose from 11th on the grid. […]