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Berlin E-Prix V: Rowland claims pole in farcical FE qualifying

Oliver Rowland landed pole for the fifth Berlin race in a farcical Formula E qualifying in which four top championship drivers failed to set a time

A superpole run of 1m15.955s secured the Nissan e.dams driver his third pole in the series by 0.049s over the Envision Virgin Racing car of Robin Frijns.

The top-six fight featured three shock contenders following a torrid opening group session for the leading drivers, which allowed Neel Jani to run to an impressive and unexpected third.

The Porsche pilot secured his best ever FE qualifying ahead of what is expected to be his last two races in FE before likely being replaced by former Mahindra runner Pascal Wehrlein.

Double DTM champion Rene Rast was provisionally on pole after his group four flier, but an unremarkable superpole lap means he will line up fourth for Audi ahead of Alex Lynn - standing in for Wehrlein for the final six races.

Tom Blomqvist was a brilliant sixth on his return to the series after coming in to replace James Calado at Jaguar, with the Briton required in the World Endurance Championship for Ferrari and so missing the final header.

The group one contestants often head out late into the session to set one flying lap without the need for a preparation run, which has seen a late scrabble for track position in previous rounds.

This came to a head with the first use of the extended track, as Maximilian Guenther led a train of Jean-Eric Vergne, Antonio Felix da Costa, Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi slowly through the first turns as he tried to find space behind Jaguar driver Mitch Evans.

Di Grassi was already running right on the rear of da Costa and then received instruction over team radio that he had to pass, which led to them hitting on the exit of the Turn 15 hairpin.

As they delayed one another, the chequered flag for the first run came out on the 130-metre longer layout before the two DS Techeetahs, di Grassi or Buemi crossed the line.

All failed to set a time, which left a two-car shootout between Guenther and Evans in the battle to finish runner up in the championship - 15 points separate second and sixth place.

Guenther, who won race three at Tempelhof Airport, topped the messy shootout on a 1m16.394s lap to beat out Evans by just 0.001s.

But the group three runs from Lynn and Frijns would leave them out of the superpole shootout, before the unexpected times of Rast, Blomqvist and Jani shuffled Guenther down to 13th and Evans 14th.

Thanks to the maiden superpole appearance for Jani, he knocked Porsche team-mate Andre Lotterer down to seventh and became the first to miss out on the top-six battle.

Felipe Massa ended up eighth fastest for Venturi Racing ahead of Sergio Sette Camara and Edoardo Mortara.

The woes of the championship leaders allowed NIO 333 driver Oliver Turvey into 12th.

Behind Guenther, Evans and the second BMW Andretti of Alexander Sims, a Turn 5 wall tap dropped Sam Bird to 16th ahead of Jerome D'Ambrosio.

Mercedes' recent strong qualifying pace seemed absent, as Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries ran slowest at the time of their group two efforts and were continually demoted to 18th and 19th.

Newly crowned champion da Costa will line up 21st ahead of Buemi, while Vergne and di Grassi will start on the final row. All four are FE title winners.

Berlin E-Prix V qualifying results

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Rene Rast Audi Audi 1m15.993s
2 Alex Lynn Mahindra Mahindra 0.165s
3 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 0.194s
4 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams Nissan 0.198s
5 Tom Blomqvist Jaguar Jaguar 0.233s
6 Neel Jani Porsche Porsche 0.241s
7 Andre Lotterer Porsche Porsche 0.248s
8 Felipe Massa Venturi Mercedes 0.258s
9 Sergio Sette Camara Dragon Penske 0.299s
10 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Mercedes 0.303s
11 Nico Muller Dragon Penske 0.334s
12 Oliver Turvey NIO NIO 0.335s
13 Maximilian Guenther BMW BMW 0.401s
14 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 0.402s
15 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 0.456s
16 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 0.531s
17 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 0.546s
18 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes Mercedes 0.653s
19 Nyck de Vries Mercedes Mercedes 0.762s
20 Daniel Abt NIO NIO 0.875s
- Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi -
- Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah DS -
- Sebastien Buemi Nissan e.dams Nissan -
- Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS -

Superpole results

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m15.955s
2 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 0.049s
3 Neel Jani Porsche Porsche 0.097s
4 Rene Rast Audi Audi 0.172s
5 Alex Lynn Mahindra Mahindra 0.237s
6 Tom Blomqvist Jaguar Jaguar 0.574s



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