Reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein began his title defence in perfect fashion with pole for the Sao Paulo E-Prix season-opener, besting Oliver Rowland by just one-tenth.
The Porsche driver found himself nearly two-tenths behind Rowland after the opening sector around the street circuit in Brazil, but gradually pulled that deficit back over the remainder of the lap.
His 1m09.851s was the fastest lap from the entirety of qualifying as the new Gen3 Evo car introduced all-wheel-drive in 350kW mode for the first time, with Rowland suggesting over the radio he had overdriven in the final two corners.
Wehrelin had earlier set the fastest time in the second qualifying group and made it through his qualifying semi-final duel against Maximilian Guenther after posting a 1m09.859s which left him nearly half a second faster.
Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who topped the opening qualifying group, missed out on a spot in the finals to Nissan’s Rowland by just 0.001s having suffered a scrappy first sector that left him more than two-tenths behind.
Dennis was never headed in his duel against DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne, posting a 1m09.957s – the fastest lap in the quarter-finals – which left him more than half a second clear.
Guenther made it through at the expense of Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, but the two DS Penske team-mates nearly collided as they completed their respective warm-up and cooldown laps.
Rowland beat Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa by just 0.060s despite reporting problems with the steering ahead of his lap, as Wehrlein finished a tenth clear of Norman Nato’s second Nissan.
Maserati MSG’s Stoffel Vandoorne missed the cut in the second qualifying group by 0.074s, with Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum only 0.001s further behind.
Robin Frijns (Envision), the second Andretti of Nico Muller, Taylor Barnard (McLaren) and rookie Zane Maloney (Lola-Yamaha Abt) completed the list of drivers to post a time.
Championship runner-up last season, Mitch Evans failed to set a lap as his Jaguar came to a stop on track in the opening minutes, an issue that also occurred in FP1, which brought out the red flag.
The first qualifying session of the season was a tough affair for the reigning teams’ champions as team-mate Nick Cassidy was the first driver to miss the cut in the opening qualifying group by one-tenth as all drivers failed to improve on their final efforts – a consequence of using a softer compound of Hankook tyre this season.
Sebastien Buemi in the Jaguar-powered Envision was sixth ahead of home hero Lucas di Grassi, who took seventh on Lola-Yamaha’s debut in the championship.
McLaren’s Sam Bird suffered a front driveshaft issue in FP2 and could only manage eighth ahead of former team-mate Jake Hughes (Maserati MSG), as David Beckmann for Cupra Kiro and Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries completed the order nearly six-tenths in arrears.
