Buenos Aires Formula E: Sebastien Buemi claims pole for e.dams

The Swiss, who had started the day by topping both practice sessions, drew a slot in the first qualifying group and laid down a marker of 1m09.134s to take his provisional place on top.

Initially, he was not confident that the time would be good enough to keep him on pole, and indeed, Virgin's Jaime Alguersuari went out with the second group and came within 0.02 seconds of beating it.

But as the session developed, a series of mishaps elsewhere helped Buemi's time to appear increasingly secure.

Sam Bird established himself in third early on and looked set to keep it until Nick Heidfeld came out with the third group and bumped the Virgin driver to the outside of the second row.

Lucas di Grassi would also have fancied his chances of a high grid lot after having run close to Buemi's times earlier in the day, but the current points leader's chances ended when he overcooked it in Turn 6 and tore his nose and right-front wheel off against the outside wall, bringing out a red flag.

"[The] car felt very well balanced," he said. "I lost it a little bit, was sliding towards the wall and couldn't avoid the contact."

His time was still good enough to keep him in fifth ahead of Punta del Este polesitter Jean-Eric Vergne, who made a late jump to sixth before suffering a couple of massive lock-ups that blunted his charge.

Di Grassi's Audi Sport Abt team was not alone in having some repair work to do ahead of the race.

Trulli driver Michela Cerruti had a huge spin in Turn 4, but managed to scrub off almost all of her speed before she hit anything solid.

Her blushes were spared when her team boss Jarno Trulli did it properly a few minutes later; the Formula 1 veteran carrying far too much speed into the same corner on his first flying lap and crunching into the wall.

A similar fate awaited Bruno Senna late in the session. He tagged the barrier on his out-lap before he'd had a chance to set a time, and the Mahindra consigned himself to the back row alongside Trulli.

IndyCar driver Marco Andretti will make his first Formula E start from 14th on the grid.