Rome E-Prix: Vergne dispatches Dennis for race 2 pole

Although Dennis had blazed his way to the final with an impressive 1m37.997s to go half a second clear of his semi-final opponent - race 1 winner Mitch Evans - he was unable to repeat those heroics in the final.

Vergne was able to keep it clean as Dennis got a bit out of shape in the first sector and, although the Avalanche Andretti driver had recouped some of the arrears in the final sector, it was not enough to deny Vergne pole position.

The pole lap that Vergne registered in the final stood at a 1m38.268s, just over a tenth slower than his lap from his semi-final against friend and former team-mate Andre Lotterer, which the Frenchman edged by 0.2s.

Vergne's quarter-final bout against Robin Frijns was also closely contested, with the Envision driver having the upper hand in the opening sector by over a tenth of a second.

But Vergne chipped away at the Dutchman, taking a smidgen of time out of him in the second sector, before leaping above in the times in the final sector by just under a tenth overall.

Lotterer dispatched Stoffel Vandoorne in their quarter-final duel, the two separated by under a tenth through the opening brace of sectors before Vandoorne ran out of steam in the final part of the lap, ending the laps 0.3s off the Porsche man.

But the German manufacturer endured a reversal in the next heat, with Pascal Wehrlein dumped out of the duels by Dennis by a similar margin.

The semi-final lap from Lotterer was good enough to collect third on the grid, ahead of Evans.

Andre Lotterer, Porsche climbs out of his car in the pit lane

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Evans, following yesterday's impressive victory from ninth on the grid, made his first duels appearance by topping the Group B times - where he was drawn against Jaguar team-mate Sam Bird in the quarter finals.

Bird will start from fifth having set the fastest time of the quarter-final eliminated drivers, lining up alongside Frijns - who was just 0.008s slower than the British veteran. Wehrlein will start seventh, joining Vandoorne on the fourth row.

Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara were the biggest scalps claimed in Group A, with de Vries missing out on a place in the duels by 0.005s as Bird crept in ahead of the reigning series champion.

De Vries endured a small slide at Turn 9 as he transcended the limits of grip available, losing time in the middle sector which ended his chances of making the top eight - and his misery will be compounded with a three-place grid penalty for his Race 1 contact with Pascal Wehrlein.

Mortara was also fractions off of making the top four, sitting 0.033s behind Bird, but the championship leader had to endure the ignominy of missing out for the second race in a row.

Dan Ticktum was unable to replicate his pace in free practice and, despite a strong first sector, couldn't keep his NIO 333 hooked up enough to bother the top four.

Antonio Felix da Costa was dumped out in Group B with a late lap from Wehrlein, with Vergne on the cusp of being eliminated from the top four as Sergio Sette Camara was dazzling on board of his Dragon Penske car before the Brazilian locked up and crashed at the chicane.

Sette Camara was third after the first set of runs, but was unable to deliver at the final moment and missed out on booking his and Dragon's first duels appearance.

However, he starts alongside da Costa on the fifth row owing to de Vries' grid penalty.

Lucas di Grassi also missed out to compound Venturi's misery, scraping the wall on his first run and ending up with a piece of advertising hoarding wrapped around his rear wing fender.

Rome E-Prix II Grid:

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