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Felix Rosenqvist on pole for Formula E finale as Buemi struggles

Formula E championship leader Lucas di Grassi will start the Montreal title decider eight places ahead of title rival Sebastien Buemi, as Felix Rosenqvist claimed pole for the season finale

A mistake at Turn 1 on his flying lap consigned Buemi to the 14th-fastest time, making the Renault e.dams driver's uphill task of overturning di Grassi's 18-point advantage even tougher.

Di Grassi made it through to the superpole and made a mistake on his flying lap in the shootout, suffering a moment at the first corner to put him fifth on the grid.

As the title rivals erred, Rosenqvist came to the fore.

The Mahindra driver is fighting Sam Bird for third place in the championship and cut the Briton's advantage in that battle to just one point with pole.

Rosenqvist's 1m22.344s knocked Jean-Eric Vergne off top spot and Bird, who ran last in the superpole after heading the group stage, fell 0.215s short of that benchmark.

Bird's effort was enough to land second ahead of Vergne, with Nick Heidfeld fourth ahead of di Grassi.

Daniel Abt was best of the non-superpole contenders and will start sixth, ahead of Tom Dillmann, Nelson Piquet Jr, Stephane Sarrazin and Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Buemi has the small reprieve of knowing he will start 13th thanks to a 20-place grid penalty for team-mate Nico Prost.

One of Prost's cars was damaged by an auxiliary battery fire immediately after Saturday's race.

The fire destroyed caballing and wiring in the motor and inverter and also damaged the car's gearbox casing.

It is believed that two 10-place penalties were given for changing the motor and the inverter.

Prost, who set the seventh-fastest time, is also likely to receive a time penalty in the race as the full penalty will not be able to be applied thanks to the 20-car entry.

STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m22.344s -
2 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m22.559s 0.215s
3 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m22.769s 0.425s
4 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m23.041s 0.697s
5 Lucas di Grassi Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m23.557s 1.213s
6 Daniel Abt Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m22.694s -
7 Tom Dillmann Venturi Venturi 1m22.822s -
8 Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m22.972s -
9 Stephane Sarrazin Techeetah Renault 1m23.057s -
10 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m23.058s -
11 Jose Maria Lopez Virgin DS Virgin 1m23.313s -
12 Loic Duval Dragon Penske 1m23.337s -
13 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m23.372s -
14 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m23.635s -
15 Robin Frijns Andretti Andretti 1m23.655s -
16 Oliver Turvey NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m23.709s -
17 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m23.755s -
18 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m23.811s -
19 Adam Carroll Jaguar Jaguar 1m24.024s -
20 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault 1m22.721s -

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