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Montreal Formula E: Di Grassi on pole, Buemi crashes and penalised

Lucas di Grassi will start the first of Formula E's two races in Montreal from pole position, with title rival Sebastien Buemi only 12th after a grid penalty

Buemi suffered a frightening crash in the second practice session when he clipped the wall on the entry to a fast left-right chicane.

This sent his Renault straight on into the barrier on the inside of the next part of the corner and the car came to a rest up against the barrer on the outside of the chicane with serious damage.

Buemi's crash forced Renault into a battery change, a breach of article 28.5 of the sporting regulations that sparks a 10-place grid drop, and the team is also rebuilding his second car around a new tub as well.

It means the Swiss driver will start the place 11 places behind di Grassi, who has cut the points gap to seven after picking up three points for pole.

Di Grassi topped the group phase of qualifying and was last to run in the superpole session, beating Buemi's effort by 0.196 seconds with a 1m22.869s.

Stephane Sarrazin will start from the front row of the grid with Buemi's penalty applied, the Techeetah driver enjoying his best qualifying performance since switching from Venturi in the second half of the season.

Buemi's Renault e.dams team-mate Nico Prost was due to start third but was found to be underweight in the superpole session.

He loses his superpole time and so drops to fourth, behind Felix Rosenqvist.

Jean-Eric Vergne failed to make it into the superpole and will start fifth, ahead of the two Jaguar drivers.

Mitch Evans outqualified team-mate Adam Carroll by three tenths of a second as the British manufacturer achieved its best qualifying performance of the season.

NextEV driver Oliver Turvey, Venturi's Tom Dillmann and Faraday Future Dragon Racing man Loic Duval complete the top 10.

Buemi will start alongside di Grassi's Abt Audi Sport team-mate Daniel Abt on row six.

A software problem meant neither DS Virgin Racing driver was able to use full power in qualifying, leaving Jose Maria Lopez 16th and New York double winner Sam Bird 18th after only completing laps with 170kW.

They were spared a more severe punishment by huge lock-ups from Maro Engel and Nelson Piquet Jr, which left those drivers 17th and 19th respectively.

A Faraday Future Dragon Racing blunder meant Jerome d'Ambrosio did not complete a proper lap before the chequered flag came out, and he will start last.

STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Lucas di Grassi Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m22.869s -
2 Stephane Sarrazin Techeetah Renault 1m23.179s 0.310s
3 Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Mahindra 1m24.351s 1.482s
4 Nicolas Prost e.dams Renault - -
5 Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah Renault 1m23.398s 0.529s
6 Mitch Evans Jaguar Jaguar 1m23.532s -
7 Adam Carroll Jaguar Jaguar 1m23.869s -
8 Oliver Turvey NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m23.923s -
9 Tom Dillmann Venturi Venturi 1m23.931s -
10 Loic Duval Dragon Penske 1m23.999s -
11 Daniel Abt Abt ABT Schaeffler 1m24.302s -
12 Sebastien Buemi e.dams Renault 1m23.065s -
13 Robin Frijns Andretti Andretti 1m24.622s -
14 Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Mahindra 1m24.769s -
15 Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Andretti 1m24.805s -
16 Jose Maria Lopez Virgin DS Virgin 1m25.297s -
17 Maro Engel Venturi Venturi 1m25.369s -
18 Sam Bird Virgin DS Virgin 1m25.770s -
19 Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NEXTEV TCR 1m26.165s -
20 Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Penske 1m36.580s -

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