Monaco Formula E: Sebastien Buemi takes pole position

With just one second covering the top 17 cars, the Toyota World Endurance Championship racer headed Lucas di Grassi, Jerome d'Ambriso and Nelson Piquet Jr.

"I hope we can keep this pole position," said Buemi, in reference to last month's Long Beach race, where he lost pole as a result of exceeding the power limit.

"We'll enjoy the race later but it will be tough, we can expect a lot of safety cars."

Drawn to set their qualifying times in the first group of five drivers were championship contenders Nelson Piquet Jr and Lucas di Grassi.

But controversy reigned as Piquet accused di Grassi of holding him up on track. The pair eventually topped the timing chart after the opening session, with a gap of just 0.043s between them.

But the prospect of a di Grassi versus Piquet Jr fight to the first corner was dashed when the second group of cars went on track. Belgian Jerome D'Ambrosio split the pair in his Dragon Racing car.

Toyota World Endurance champion Buemi then put in a time of 53.478s right at the end of the third session, going almost two-tenths quicker than di Grassi to take pole. In the only shunt of the weekend so far, Antonio Felix da Costa hit the wall hard while the final group was on track.

The Aguri driver lost control of his car on the entry to the fast Tabac left-hander and spun backwards into the barrier. If his car can be repaired he'll start from last position.

That interrupted Jarno Trulli, winner of the 2004 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, and Jamie Alguersuari, who were both threatening quick times.

With the green flag showing, Trulli could only post 15th fastest time. Alguersuari was eighth but the Spaniard will lose 10 places thanks to a penalty for changing parts of his car's Rechargeable Energy Storage System.

Audi World Endurance Championship racer Loic Duval qualified fifth, but he also has a 10-place penalty. Karun Chandhok, who was 19th fastest, has the same penalty.

QUALIFYING RESULTS