Prost beats Senna to Formula E pole in London - MotorSportsTalk

LONDON, UK – In a scenario all-too-reminiscent of Formula 1 in the 1980s, Prost and Senna locked out the front row for Saturday’s Formula E race in London.

Nico Prost and Bruno Senna may not enjoy the same kind of fierce rivalry that their elders did, but they will line up side-by-side later today at Battersea Park.

A short, sharp rain shower after Q1 left championship contenders Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi languishing outside the top 10, qualifying 11th and 14th respectively.

The rain meant that all four drivers who took part in Q1 made it through to the final shoot-out for pole position, the advantage lying with Prost as the last man to take to the track as it dried.

The Frenchman produced a fastest lap in the Superpole shootout of 1:27.192 to finish half a second clear of Senna in second place, securing his first Formula E pole in over 18 months.

Oliver Turvey made the most of the damp conditions to finish third for NextEV TCR, while Robin Frijns finished fourth for Andretti. Jean-Eric Vergne qualified fifth, having been unable to take part in the final session after crashing after his 170kW lap in Q1.

Daniel Abt, Sam Bird and Nick Heidfeld were the fastest drivers to run in wet conditions, allowing them to qualify sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. Stephane Sarrazin and Loic Duval rounded out the top 10.

The first race of the London ePrix weekend takes place at 4pm local time at Battersea Park.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”