Mitch Evans scores pole in Chile for Jaguar at the Santiago ePrix

Santiago ePrix

Evans to start Santiago ePrix from pole

Can Evans convert pole into victory?

Sam Hall

Saturday 18 January 2020 17:14

Mitch Evans scores pole position for Jaguar at the SantiagoePrix - championship contenders Alexander Sims and Sam Bird starting way down the order.

In a qualifying session that saw track evolution largely decide which driver would make it into Superpole, Evans made the most of his poor start to the campaign to qualify at the front.

Group one, featuring the championship leaders saw instant drama. Andre Lotterer (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team) looked to be on track to top the group but a stunning attempt from Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team) pushed the German back to second.

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Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams), the driver who topped practice two, made a mess of turn nine and ended his qualifying in the wall in a near identical crash to that of Ma Qinghua (NIO 333 FE Team) in that earlier practice session.

Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team) had gambled on running last to get the best possible circuit condition, but Rowland's accident caused the season-three champion to slow and lose time. Fighting to regain what he had lost, di Grassi then made his own mistake under braking and slid helplessly off the track.

Group two was equally entertaining. Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing) avoided the spinning Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) to set the overall fastest time of the session to that point - rookie Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team) going second overall, just ahead of his Mercedes teammate Vandoorne.

Strong throughout all of the sessions to this point, Mitch Evans (Panasonic Jaguar Racing) found six tenths on Mortara - Maximilian Gunther (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) and Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra Racing) also displacing the Venturi driver as group three completed their session.

Those at the bottom of the table make up group four and there were plenty of surprises as Felipe Massa (ROKiT Venturi Racing), Oliver Turvey (NIO 333 FE Team) and Sebastian Buemi (Nissan e.dams) all made it through into superpole. For all of his earlier heroics, Mortara missed out on progression.

Superpole was comprised of drivers who competed in groups three or four and it was a typical opportunity for the championship order to be turned on it's head.

Oliver Turvey was a surprise contender in the session and was immediately beaten by Wehrlein and Massa - both of whom set identical lap times - but a poor effort from Buemi guaranteed the British driver a top-five start.

Gunther (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) went half a second clear of anyone else but then came Evans, going a further quarter of a second faster to secure the second Formula E pole of his career.

Superpole

1 Mitch Evans Panasonic Jaguar Racing 1:04.827
2 Maximilian Gunther BMW i Andretti Motorsport +0.275
3 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Racing +0.818
4 Felipe Massa ROKiT Venturi Racing +0.818
5 Oliver Turvey NIO 333 FE Team +0.961
6 Sebastian Buemi Nissan e.dams +0.982

Group Qualifying

1 Mitch Evans Panasonic Jaguar Racing 1:04.941
2 Maximilian Gunther BMW i Andretti Motorsport +0.228
3 Sebastian Buemi Nissan e.dams +0.449
4 Felipe Massa ROKiT Venturi Racing +0.522
5 Oliver Turvey NIO 333 FE Team +0.569
6 Pascal Wehrlein Mahindra Racing +0.584
7 Edoardo Mortara ROKiT Venturi Racing +0.606
8 Nyck de Vries Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team +0.619
9 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team +0.625
10 Antonio Felix da Costa DS Techeetah +0.633
11 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah +0.684
12 Neel Jani TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team +0.755
13 Daniel Abt Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team +0.804
14 Andre Lotterer TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team +0.860
15 Alexander Sims BMW i Andretti Motorsport +0.907
16 Sam Bird Envision Virgin Racing +0.945
17 Brendon Hartley GEOX Dragon +1.185
18 James Calado Panasonic Jaguar Racing +1.364
19 Nico Muller GEOX Dragon +1.426
20 Jerome d’Ambrosio Mahindra Racing +2.751
21 Robin Frijns Envision Virgin Racing +4.148
22 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.dams +13.298
23 Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E Team +21585
24 Ma Qinghua NIO 333 FE Team No Time Set