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Santiago Formula E: Di Grassi claims pole but faces investigation

Audi's Lucas di Grassi claimed provisional pole for ABB FIA Formula E's second race in Santiago ahead of Sebastien Buemi, but faces an investigation over a technical infringement

Di Grassi topped superpole after running in the second group of an opening phase of qualifying - he is under investigation for an issue in that segment - that left many of the current championship leaders down the grid.

UPDATE: Di Grassi excluded, Buemi to start from pole

After no drivers from group one made it into superpole, di Grassi set a best time of 1m08.290s with a mighty lap around the 1.45-mile track set in Santiago's Park O'Higgins.

He ended up topping superpole by 0.526 seconds ahead of Nissan e.dams driver Buemi, which meant di Grassi will take the fourth pole of his FE career pending the outcome of the investigation.

Buemi, who crashed heavily in practice, will start from the top three for the third time in the three races of the 2018/19 season so far.

Pascal Wehrlein was fastest of all in the first part of qualifying having run in the fourth and final pack, but could not repeat his performance in superpole and ended up third in only his second qualifying session.

Daniel Abt was fourth, 0.668s slower than Audi team-mate di Grassi.

HWA's Stoffel Vandoorne made the first superpole appearance of his FE career and set the fifth fastest time.

But the ex-McLaren F1 driver also faces a stewards' investigation after failing to respect the superpole procedure - he appeared not to have left the pitlane in time before a red light was shown at the end of the pitlane.

Sam Bird rounded out the top six for Virgin Racing, losing around 0.3s with errors at the final two corners.

Edoardo Mortara will start seventh as the highest driver not to make it through to superpole, just head of Dragon Racing's Maximilian Gunther, who secured the highest grid spot of his FE career so far with eighth.

Alexander Sims starts ninth for BMW Andretti, with ex-F1 driver Felipe Massa completing the top 10 for Venturi.

Practice pacesetter Jose Maria Lopez ended up 11th, ahead of Jaguar's Mitch Evans and reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne.

Vergne topped the first group to hit the track - the top five in the championship - but was eventually shuffled down to P13.

Oliver Rowland split the DS Techeetah drivers in 14th, with group one runners Andre Lotterer and Robin Frijns taking 15th and 16th.

Gary Paffett faded from top 10 contention on his 250kW lap in group four with a slow final sector and finished in P17.

Riyadh race winner Antonio Felix da Costa ended up down in 18th place as he also failed to escape from group one.

Group three drivers Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr will start 18th and 19th for NIO and Jaguar respectively, with current championship leader Jerome d'Ambrosio ending up 21st in the second Mahindra Racing car.

Tom Dillmann brought up the rear of the field for NIO.

Starting grid

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Nissan 1m08.816s
2 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 0.109s
3 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 0.142s
4 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 0.437s
5 Stoffel Vandoorne HWA Venturi -
6 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Venturi 0.226s
7 Maximilian Guenther Dragon Penske 0.327s
8 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 0.331s
9 Felipe Massa Venturi Venturi 0.352s
10 Jose Maria Lopez Dragon Penske 0.385s
11 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 0.419s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS 0.491s
13 Oliver Rowland e.dams Nissan 0.549s
14 Andre Lotterer DS Techeetah DS 0.669s
15 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 0.689s
16 Gary Paffett HWA Venturi 0.689s
17 Antonio Felix da Costa BMW BMW 0.735s
18 Oliver Turvey NIO NIO 0.829s
19 Nelson Piquet Jr. Jaguar Jaguar 0.889s
20 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1.267s
21 Tom Dillmann NIO NIO 1.442s
22 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi -


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