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Shanghai E-Prix: McLaren's Hughes beats Vandoorne to pole by 0.001s

The Briton found himself a tenth down on Vandoorne after the opening sector at the Shanghai International Circuit, with Formula E using a truncated layout of the grand prix layout.

Hughes overturned the deficit into a gain of nearly half a tenth through the middle sector, but a quicker final sector for Vandoorne meant the pair were separated by the smallest ever margin for pole.

The result marks Hughes' second pole of the season after taking top spot in Misano.

Having scored his first points of the season in Saturday’s opening Shanghai race, Nyck de Vries made it through to the duels for the first time on Sunday but went out in the semi-finals.

The Mahindra driver finished 0.226s behind Vandoorne, while Hughes got the better of Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa by over a tenth to progress to the final.

Current championship leader Nick Cassidy failed to progress beyond the quarter-final stage, as Vandoorne overturned a small deficit through the final sector to beat the Jaguar driver by 0.006s – his 1m13.666s the fastest from qualifying.

Stoffel Vandoorne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23 (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

Winner of the first Shanghai E-Prix, the second Jaguar of Mitch Evans finished just over a tenth behind da Costa, as Nissan’s Oliver Rowland was another championship protagonist to miss out having finished nearly two tenths slower than de Vries.

A quicker final sector was not enough for Andretti’s Norman Nato to overturn a deficit to Hughes, the pair separated by 0.073s at the line.

Just over three tenths covered all 11 drivers in the opening qualifying group, as the top four which included Rowland, Vandoorne, Cassidy and de Vries, were separated by only 0.025s.

Maximillian Guenther was the first driver to miss the cut by just 0.018s, as the Maserati MSG driver headed Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) and ERT’s Dan Ticktum.

Reigning champion Jake Dennis took eighth for Andretti, followed by Jehan Daruvala (Maserati MSG), and the Envisions of Robin Frijns and Sebastien Buemi.

Polesitter for Saturday’s Shanghai E-Prix, DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne missed out on the duels by 0.013s, as Hughes topped the second qualifying group from da Costa, Evans and Nato.

Runner-up yesterday, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein could only finish seventh behind Sam Bird (McLaren), as Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), both Abts of Nico Muller and Lucas di Grassi, and Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) completed the order.

Shanghai E-Prix qualifying result

   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Time km/h
1 United Kingdom J. Hughes McLaren 5

1'13.921

148.585
2 Belgium S. Vandoorne DS Penske 2

+0.001

1'13.922

148.583
3 Portugal A. Felix da Costa Porsche Team 13

+0.059

1'13.980

148.467
4 Netherlands N. de Vries Mahindra Racing 21

+0.159

1'14.080

148.266
5 New Zealand N. Cassidy Jaguar Racing 37

1'13.672

149.087
6 New Zealand M. Evans Jaguar Racing 9

1'13.888

148.652
7 France N. Nato Andretti Formula E 17

1'13.909

148.609
8 United Kingdom O. Rowland Nissan e.dams 22

+0.088

1'14.009

148.408
9 France J. Vergne DS Penske 25

+0.710

1'14.631

147.172
10 Germany M. Gunther Maserati Racing 7

+0.751

1'14.672

147.091
11 United Kingdom S. Bird McLaren 8

+0.804

1'14.725

146.986
12 France S. Fenestraz Nissan e.dams 23

+0.814

1'14.735

146.967
13 Germany P. Wehrlein Porsche Team 94

+0.811

1'14.732

146.973
14 United Kingdom D. Ticktum ERT Formula E Team 33

+0.815

1'14.736

146.965
15 Brazil S. Sette Camara ERT Formula E Team 3

+0.850

1'14.771

146.896
16 United Kingdom J. Dennis Andretti Formula E 1

+0.850

1'14.771

146.896
17 Switzerland N. Müller Team Abt 51

+0.911

1'14.832

146.776
18 India J. Daruvala Maserati Racing 18

+0.871

1'14.792

146.855
19 Brazil L. di Grassi Team Abt 11

+0.944

1'14.865

146.712
20 Netherlands R. Frijns Envision Racing 4

+1.023

1'14.944

146.557
21 Switzerland E. Mortara Mahindra Racing 48

+0.956

1'14.877

146.688
22 Switzerland S. Buemi Envision Racing 16

+1.028

1'14.949

146.547
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