Qualifying report

Formula E Paris ePrix

Paris ePrix: Buemi denies Vergne pole by 0.006s

Sebastien Buemi produced a best lap of 1m02.319s in a thrilling Super Pole session to take pole for the Paris ePrix.

Sam Smith

Edited: May 20, 2017, 1:31 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sébastien Buemi, Renault e.Dams

Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah

Jose Maria Lopez, DS Virgin Racing

Esteban Gutierrez, Techeetah

Oliver Turvey, NEXTEV TCR Formula E Team

The reigning champion took his second consecutive pole position by just 0.006s from rival Jean-Eric Vergne in a tense finale to the one-lap session.

Parisien Vergne missed out on getting the first pole position for the Techeetah team by the slenderest margin in Formula E history as the evenly-matched pair went head to head in the qualifying showdown.

“I am relieved, we worked very hard to improve our performance here at this track,” said Buemi. “I had a few mistakes in the last sector but we did a good job and I am super happy.”

Jose Maria Lopez set the third-best time in his DS Virgin DSV-02 with a 1m02.640s lap but was placed under investigation for accidentally using too much power on his outlap after changing the setting by mistake.

He has not been penalised although tweaking the setting back and forth has damaged the battery, which needs to be changed before the race.

Oliver Turvey again made Super Pole to ensure a 100% success rate for the NextEV team this campaign. He set the fourth-best lap but will be shuffled back down to a 14th starting position due to a penalty for changing a motor in one of his cars.

Esteban Gutierrez claimed his best qualifying result since he entered Formula E with fifth, but his Super Pole session ended in frustration as he locked his Techeetah Renault’s brakes into Turn 7 and disappeared down the escape road.

Group qualifying

Buemi had also claimed the fastest time in the earlier group sessions with a 1m02.171s lap. This was a full 0.5s quicker than the next best time in his group, which was set by Mahindra's Felix Rosenqvist.

Again, the times were slower than at the corresponding qualifying session last season, which some of the drivers attributed to some subtle changes in the track surface and the new-for-season-three Michelin tyres.

Rosenqvist's teammate Nick Heidfeld produced a late lap good enough for sixth on the times, as he beat the Swede by 0.006s - and he will thus start fifth due to Turvey's penalty.

Robin Frijns and Mitch Evans set impressively committed laps in their Andretti and Jaguar entries respectively to ensure a seventh and eighth place start.

Completing the top 10 is Nicolas Prost (Renault e.dams) and Mike Conway, who outqualified teammate Jerome d’Ambrosio in his first appearance with Faraday Future Dragon Racing.

There was disappointment for Lucas di Grassi, who rued a lack of grip and will start the race from 13th position on the grid. His teammate Daniel Abt was a couple of tenths away from his teammate and lines up 16th, with newcomer Tom Dillmann a spot ahead.

Last years pole-sitter Sam Bird had a disastrous qualifying session and was 1.4s away from the outright group session pace. As a result, he starts a despondent 18th in his DS-Virgin DSV-02.

Stephane Sarrazin suffered a shutdown of his powertrain in the group session to spoil his attempt and, as a result, the Venturi driver starts from the rear of the grid.

Qualifying results

Pos.DriverTeamTimeGap 1 switzerland Sebastien Buemi Renault e.dams 1'02.319 2 france Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah 1'02.325 0.006 3 argentina Jose María Lopez DS Virgin Racing 1'02.640 0.321 4 mexico Esteban Gutierrez Techeetah 1'13.287 10.968 5 germany Nick Heidfeld Mahindra Racing 1'02.611 0.292 6 sweden Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Racing 1'02.617 0.298 7 netherlands Robin Frijns Amlin Andretti 1'02.654 0.335 8 new_zealand Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing 1'02.687 0.368 9 france Nicolas Prost Renault e.dams 1'02.746 0.427 10 united_kingdom Mike Conway Dragon Racing 1'02.808 0.489 11 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. NextEV NIO 1'02.810 0.491 12 belgium Jerome d'Ambrosio Dragon Racing 1'02.814 0.495 13 brazil Lucas Di Grassi Audi Sport Team Abt 1'02.840 0.521 14 Oliver Turvey NextEV NIO 1'02.910 0.591 15 france Tom Dillmann Venturi 1'03.024 0.705 16 germany Daniel Abt Audi Sport Team Abt 1'03.071 0.752 17 portugal Antonio Félix da Costa Amlin Andretti 1'03.268 0.949 18 united_kingdom Sam Bird DS Virgin Racing 1'03.573 1.254 19 Adam Carroll Jaguar Racing 1'03.771 1.452 20 france Stephane Sarrazin Venturi 1'06.121 3.802

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Paris ePrix: Di Grassi tops FP2 with last-gasp lap

Next article Paris ePrix: Buemi wins, disaster for di Grassi

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

2 h

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 3 h

Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda

Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 4 h

Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 5 h

GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

By Ed Hardy

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

By Ed Hardy

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts