Sebastien Buemi has claimed his second pole position of the inaugural FIA Formula E season after finishing fastest in qualifying for the Monaco ePrix on Saturday afternoon.
The electric-powered series ventures to Monaco this weekend for its first race on European shores, acting as something of a home event for the French e.dams team that Buemi drives for.
The Swiss driver posted a fastest lap time of 53.478 seconds during qualifying, using his experience of racing at Monaco in Formula 1 wisely to finish two-tenths of a second clear of the field and clinch the team’s fourth pole position of the season.
Championship leader Lucas di Grassi will start alongside Buemi on the front row of the grid for Audi Sport ABT at his home event, and is joined in the top three by another former Virgin F1 driver in the form of Jerome d’Ambrosio, who will start from his highest position later today. Long Beach winner Nelson Piquet Jr. qualified fourth for Team China Racing.
Many of the big hitters failed to get to grips with the modified Monaco circuit, which uses only half of the layout used in F1. Andretti’s good form in qualifying came to an end as both Jean-Eric Vergne and Scott Speed ended up 14th and 16th respectively, whilst Nicolas Prost could only qualify seventh in the second e.dams car.
Antonio Felix da Costa’s hopes of spoiling the party in the final qualifying group were dashed after he lost the backend of his car when heading through Tabac, crashing into the wall and bringing out a red flag. Despite qualifying in 20th place, he will move up the grid due to Karun Chandhok’s grid penalty.
Loic Duval and Jaime Alguersuari have also been penalized for component changes, dropping to 15th and 18th respectively.
The Monaco ePrix kicks off at 4pm local time.
