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Edoardo Mortara secured Mahindra’s first pole position in almost two years after defeating Maximilian Günther in the final duel in Jeddah.

Throughout qualifying, Mortara looked to have an advantage over the entire field at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, with a 1m 15.336 securing him pole.

It was a qualifying session full of shocks, with Pascal Wehrlein the only driver in the top four of the championship to progress to the duels.

Reigning world champion Oliver Rowland, Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis were all eliminated, the latter furious with the tyres allocated to him by Hankook for qualifying and describing his car as a “shopping trolley.”

Duels

In the final, Mortara had a clear advantage across the first two sectors, building a two-tenths advantage over Günther.

However, the Mahindra driver did clip a wall, but his advantage remained too strong for Günther to capitalise.

To make it to the final duel, Mortara first had to defeat Müller in the quarter-finals before getting the better of Nato in their semi-final duel.

As for Günther, the DS Penske driver got past da Costa first and then defeated Porsche’s Wehrlein in the semi-finals.

Wehrlein had been quicker than Günther for much of the lap, but a mistake in the final sector cost him time. Nevertheless, the Season 10 champion’s time was quicker than Nato’s, securing him third on the grid.

Group stage

Qualifying got underway in hot, humid but sunny conditions — the complete opposite of the night race awaiting the drivers.

Nevertheless, both groups featured big shocks, the first being that title contenders Cassidy and Dennis both failed to make it into the duels.

Mortara went quickest in the opening group, joined in the top four by Nato, Miami polesitter Müller and Vergne.

In the second group, the shocks continued, as Rowland was eliminated while title rival Wehrlein went quickest.

The Porsche driver was joined in the duel positions by da Costa, Günther and Barnard, the latter having claimed his first Formula E pole in Jeddah last season.

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