Marko Hanželic
Oliver Rowland (Nissan-e.dams) in the first starting position, René Rast (Abt-Audi) with excellent qualifications, which brought him a place in the second row and four champions right at the tail of the starting line, this is a short summary of events in the qualifications for the fifth race of the six-part marathon Formula E on the airport Tempelhof v Berlin.
It started in the first group with strange and unpleasant scenes for those involved. New champion Antonio Felix daCosta, his teammate at DS Techeetah, Jean-Eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi (Abt-Audi) and Sebastien Buemi (Nissan-e.dams) fought for the best starting position on the track in the warm-up lap.
After the initial “Cincanju”The four began to overtake and - during the heating circuit - there was contact between di Grassi in Felix da Costo. The fight between the four drivers ultimately had similar consequences as we witnessed on Formula 1 qualifiers last year in Monza. When the mentioned drivers started their fast lap, the six minutes intended for setting the qualifying time had already expired and the checkered flag fluttered.
Felix da Costa, Vergne, di Grassi in Buemi, everyone already Formula E champions, so they did not set their times. Four of the top six in the championship will start the race from scratch. "Honestly, I don't know what to say," he said visibly embarrassed Felix daCosta.
“No one wants to be first in the first group because the track is getting faster and faster. The two guys in front slowed us down quite a bit, and when I noticed it was going to go very close together, I wanted to speed up, but we were crammed into a very small space. Lucas then touched me quite strongly, ” he said Felix daCosta.
Za pole position they eventually fought outsiders, as the track became faster and faster during the qualifiers. Three drivers from the last group, in which the worst ranked drivers in the championship compete, broke into Super poles.
Among them was also a two-time championship champion DTM, Rene Rast, who set the fastest overall time in the group qualifiers and thus won his first primarily point. He is in the top six in the individual time trial Grow then set the fourth fastest time and will start the race from other starting types.
He will start from the first place Oliver Rowland, who for the fourth time in Formula E gained pole position, Robin Frijns (Virgin) and Neel jani (Porsche). The Swiss was also one of the positive surprises in the qualifiers, as he has never started in the top ten in the race so far.
Fifth place went to Alex Lynn (Mahindra), he was a good sixth Tom blomqvist (Jaguar), which replaced James Calad. Andre Lotterer confirmed Porsche’s good performance in seventh place. Felipe Massa (Venturi), Sergio Sette Camara (GEOX Dragon) and Edward Mortara (Venturi) completed the top ten, which he missed by a hair Nico Müller.
The last two races of the finals Formula E will take place on a new, 130-meter-long route at Tempelhof. From bend no. 4, the track was given a more technically demanding middle section with a series of narrow passages. The race will, as usual, on the schedule at 19 p.m..
