Diriyah E-Prix: De Vries pips Mortara to pole by 0.005s

Mortara got loose into the first corner and looked down and out by the end of the first sector - reigning champion de Vries's Mercedes going three-tenths faster off the bat.

But with an identical Mercedes powertrain in his Venturi, Mortara regrouped and reeled off two rapid final sectors, beating de Vries in both. Friday's race winner was only just able to absorb his rival's late charge and held pole by the merest of margins, de Vries remarking that he was left "disappointed" by his pole-winning lap.

De Vries had dispatched Mortara's team-mate Lucas di Grassi in the semi-finals, the Brazilian elevated into the final four after confusion had reigned supreme in his quarter-final bout with Antonio Felix da Costa.

The DS Techeetah driver was placed under investigation for impeding the 2016-17 champion, having missed his pit-exit signal and instead left on di Grassi's - leaving the former Audi driver initially stranded in the pitlane on a red light.

Mortara had made his way through to the final after seeing off Andre Lotterer and Robin Frijns, while de Vries had overcome Jean-Eric Vergne in the quarter-finals as DS Techeetah managed to get both cars among the duel stages.

Frijns' time in the semi-finals proved stronger than di Grassi's, earning him third on the grid.

Oliver Rowland and Frijns were drawn together in the third quarter-final duel - resuming their battle after both came to blows in the opening Diriyah race.

Frijns was able to find fractionally more speed than Rowland in each sector, nailing the final corner to knock the Mahindra driver out of qualifying. Rowland starts 10th after Friday's skirmish with Frijns earned him a three-place grid penalty.

Robin Frijns will start third

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

De Vries had set the pace in the opening collection of runs in Group A, being the first driver to get within the 1m08s in the session ahead of the nominal mid-session lull.

Oliver Askew then got within a tenth, ahead of a flurry of purple laptimes that precipitated a battle over the top four spots in the session.

Sergio Sette Camara then charged to the top, but was quickly toppled by race one podium-finisher Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein - before Lotterer put them to the sword with a 1m08.224s.

Rowland then picked up the pace with a tenth over Lotterer, before de Vries returned to the top with a 1m07.939s. Di Grassi slotted into second, dumping Dennis out at the group stages.

Dennis starts eighth, elevated up a position after Rowland's penalty.

Nick Cassidy did not run in qualifying following his earlier crash in practice, which resigned him to the back of the opening session after requiring multiple repairs.

Da Costa took race one poleman Stoffel Vandoorne off the top of Group B after the initial set of runs, although Mortara posted a 1m07.724s benchmark while the track was marginally more clear after getting baulked on his opening run.

Da Costa got within a tenth of Mortara as Vergne also nipped ahead of Vandoorne, ahead of a final push from each driver in the session.

Vergne cemented his spot with a 1m07.968s lap, while Vandoorne failed to improve on his final run and was displaced from the top four - allowing Alexander Sims a brief sniff of a spot in the duels before Frijns dumped Rowland's Mahindra team-mate out.

Mortara's benchmark remained unbeaten, while da Costa aborted his final lap having already been assured of a place in the knock-out stages.

Sam Bird tapped the wall half-way through the session, causing damage to his rear suspension which put a pin in Jaguar driver's session - leaving him last overall in his group.

Diriyah E-Prix - Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	17	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes
2	48	Edoardo Mortara	Venturi
3	4	Robin Frijns	Virgin Racing
4	11	Lucas di Grassi	Venturi
5	36	Andre Lotterer	Porsche Team
6	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Techeetah
7	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	Techeetah
8	27	Jake Dennis	Andretti Autosport
9	29	Alexander Sims	Mahindra Racing
10	30	Oliver Rowland	Mahindra Racing
11	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Porsche Team
12	5	Stoffel Vandoorne	Mercedes
13	7	Sergio Sette Camara	Dragon Racing
14	22	Maximilian Gunther	DAMS
15	28	Oliver Askew	Andretti Autosport
16	9	Mitch Evans	Jaguar Racing
17	23	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS
18	33	Dan Ticktum	NIO Formula E Team
19	3	Oliver Turvey	NIO Formula E Team
20	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Dragon Racing
21	10	Sam Bird	Jaguar Racing
22	37	Nick Cassidy	Virgin Racing
View full results