Wehrlein gives Porsche pole, title rivals trip each other up

Pascal Wehrlein claimed his first Formula E pole position in over two years at Puebla ahead of the first of two races at the Mexico E-Prix, while championship leader Robin Frijns could only manage 22nd.

Wehrlein claimed Porsche’s second-ever pole since it entered the championship with a stunningly brave superpole lap that allowed him to eclipse Oliver Rowland by just 0.058 seconds.

Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland, who has the best qualifying record of anyone this season and topped both practice sessions, was forced to settle for second place with a lap he called “nothing special”.

Jake Dennis’s second superpole session of the season resulted in third place of the grid for BMW, He was just 0.041s slower than Rowland.

DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne was fourth fastest as his wait for a first pole of the season continues.

Maximilian Guenther was fifth fastest in the group stage and fifth fastest in superpole to round out an impressive session for BMW.

Edoardo Mortara was the slowest of the six drivers in superpole after the Venturi driver lost over two seconds when he locked-up and narrowly avoided the escape road at the tricky Turn 11 left-hander.

Alexander Sims bounced back from missing the majority of the opening practice session to qualify in seventh place for Mahindra.

Eighth place on the grid marked a much-needed improvement for Audi’s Lucas di Grassi, who is still yet to stand on the podium this year.

Sergio Sette Camara qualified in ninth place, but he’ll start at the back of the grid after he picked up a 20-place grid penalty because his Dragon team had to break the seal on his inverter.

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast qualified in 10th place ahead of the second Porsche of Andre Lotterer.

Track evolution meant the six leading championship contenders who went out in the first group all failed to make superpole.

Absolute chaos from Group 1, with @nyckdevries *just* making it across the line and a HUGE lock up from @RFrijns into Turn 1 😅

All LIVE updates throughout the day here 👉 https://t.co/qD4c9DojZZ@MercedesEQFE @EnvisionVirgin
🇲🇽 2021 CBMM Niobium #PueblaEPrix pic.twitter.com/J1Wk6IhxLt

— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) June 19, 2021

Defending champion Antonio Felix da Costa was the quickest of the leading sextet for DS Techeetah but he’ll start down in 11th place.

The other drivers in the session tripped over each other as they all tried to set their lap in the dying seconds of the session.

Championship leader Frijns locked up at Turn 1 and ended up holding up the cars behind him, while Jaguar’s Sam Bird overtook the Mercedes of Stoffel Vandoorne into the same corner.

Frijns struggled to the 22nd fastest time, albeit one place ahead of fellow title contender Vandoorne.

Bird’s team-mate Mitch Evans was second quickest in the group, just 0.053s slower than da Costa, and he’ll start from 12th place.

Dragon’s Joel Eriksson, who finished second behind Lando Norris in the 2017 European Formula 3 championship, qualified in a respectable 14th position on his Formula E debut.

However, he’ll also start at the back of the grid for the same reason as his team-mate.

Qualifying Results