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Diriyah FE: Second pole for BMW's Sims after nervous Superpole wait

Alexander Sims completed a clean sweep of Formula E pole positions in Diriyah, withstanding a late onslaught as Antonio Felix da Costa made errors on his Saturday superpole lap

Sims logged an 1m11.476s lap, beating his pacesetting time of 1m14.563s from Friday by more than three seconds.

The BMW driver held an advantage of four tenths over Lucas di Grassi in the opening two sectors, before a slide on the exit of Turn 17 burdened Sims with a slight disadvantage in the final sector - though he rocketed to the top of the timesheets regardless.

Sims's time then absorbed a siege from the remaining runners, as Sebastien Buemi could not quite overcome the British driver's time, while DS Techeetah's da Costa suffered two hefty slides during the second sector, tapping the wall on the exit of Turn 17 to all but end his chances of pole.

This is Sims's third consecutive Formula E pole position, a current championship record.

Da Costa had set the fastest lap in the first part of qualifying, progressing from the third group and claiming his first point of the 2019-20 season.

Making an appearance in group two, Sims was narrowly beaten in the first part of qualifying by Jerome d'Ambrosio, but both drivers - along with Mitch Evans - made it through to superpole.

Audi driver Di Grassi also progressed from the third group, while Buemi was the sole representative from the final group.

Nissan e.dams driver Buemi's time in superpole was good enough for second, beating di Grassi and Evans to a front-row start in the race, while da Costa qualified behind d'Ambrosio after the slides on his final lap.

Race one winner Sam Bird converted a group one qualifying session effort into seventh for Envision Virgin Racing, suggesting a subdued rate of track evolution compared to the session on the previous day.

Venturi's Edoardo Mortara was the highest-placed Mercedes powertrain runner after qualifying ninth, unable to reprise his Friday role in the superpole shootout.

Sims's BMW team-mate Maximilian Guenther claimed ninth, while race one runner-up Andre Lotterer completed the top 10 for Porsche having appeared in the first group alongside Bird.

After hitting the wall in practice, 2018-19 Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne qualified 11th, having been offered a consolation berth in the fourth group following his steering rack-enforced retirement from the first race.

Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland struggled in the first qualifying group, clocking in a lap over a second slower than his best effort in practice.

James Calado managed to make it out to qualifying after his Jaguar team repaired a driveshaft at the rear of his car following a practice error, and he just managed to stay off of the final row of the grid.

Nyck de Vries qualified last after losing more than two seconds in the final two sectors, ending his session 21 positions below his top-three qualifying position on Friday.

Starting grid

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Alexander Sims BMW BMW 1m11.476s -
2 Sebastien Buemi Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m11.696s 0.220s
3 Lucas di Grassi Audi Audi 1m11.784s 0.308s
4 Jerome d'Ambrosio Mahindra Mahindra 1m12.093s 0.617s
5 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah DS 1m14.134s 2.658s
6 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar - -
7 Sam Bird Virgin Audi 1m12.007s 0.531s
8 Edoardo Mortara Venturi Mercedes 1m12.008s 0.532s
9 Maximilian Guenther BMW BMW 1m12.051s 0.575s
10 Andre Lotterer Porsche Porsche 1m12.153s 0.677s
11 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes Mercedes 1m12.422s 0.946s
12 Robin Frijns Virgin Audi 1m12.454s 0.978s
13 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Mahindra 1m12.635s 1.159s
14 Daniel Abt Audi Audi 1m12.642s 1.166s
15 Felipe Massa Venturi Mercedes 1m12.656s 1.180s
16 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams Nissan 1m12.660s 1.184s
17 Oliver Turvey NIO NIO 1m12.671s 1.195s
18 Neel Jani Porsche Porsche 1m12.732s 1.256s
19 Brendon Hartley Dragon Penske 1m13.182s 1.706s
20 Ma Qinghua NIO NIO 1m13.205s 1.729s
21 James Calado Jaguar Jaguar 1m13.430s 1.954s
22 Nico Muller Dragon Penske 1m13.703s 2.227s
23 Nyck de Vries Mercedes Mercedes 1m14.082s 2.606s
24 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS 1m12.327s 0.851s

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