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Formula E

Evans claims huge London Formula E pole as Cassidy suffers nightmare

Mitch Evans will start the opening race of the Formula E London E-Prix on pole position.

Evans London
Article
To news overview © Dom Romney / Formula E

Championship contender Mitch Evans will start the opening race of the London E-Prix from pole position, as standings leader Nick Cassidy suffered a qualifying nightmare. 

The championship leader failed to progress to the duels and starts the opening race of the weekend from P18. Evans defeated Sebastian Buemi in the final to reduce Cassidy's championship lead to just nine points.

Cassidy was not the only title contender to miss out on the duels, as Antonio Felix da Costa and Jake Dennis were also eliminated in the group stage.

Championship contender Pascal Wehrlein qualified third, ahead of Norman Nato in fourth, Jean-Eric Vergne in fifth, Nico Müller in sixth, Oliver Rowland in seventh and Robin Frijns eighth. 

Group stage

It was a few minutes prior to the first group getting underway that rain started to fall. The drivers in Group A searched for grip in their opening laps, as the outside section of the ExCeL Centre circuit was damp.

Several title contenders including Cassidy, Wehrlein, Rowland and Jake Dennis featured in the first group. The times tumbled every lap as the rain quickly eased, although championship leader Cassidy found himself outside the duel places ahead of his final lap. 

In a huge shock, the New Zealander failed to put a strong lap together, leaving him to start the race from the ninth row of the grid! Big title rival Wehrlein salvaged top spot in the group, whilst championship outsider Rowland secured P3. Both Envisions also progressed to the duels.

Cassidy being knocked out in the group stage offered joint-closest title rival Evans an exceptional chance in Group B. Evans topped the session after the opening hot laps, ahead of Günther, Vandoorne and Daruvala. 

Evans failed to improve on his final lap but safely progressed as the fastest driver. Abt Cupra's departing Müller secured second, ahead of the driver he is rumoured to be replacing at Andretti, Nato. Title outsider Vergne completed the top four duel places, whilst da Costa missed out in fifth.

Duels

The first duel of the London double-header was between Rowland and Buemi, with the latter having been victorious by two tenths of a second. Title outsider Rowland was frustrated and labelled his lap as "shit". 

Wehrlein had to deal with Frijns in the second quarter-final duel and looked set to be eliminated. The Porsche driver was down ahead of the final sector, but managed to claw back time on Frijns to progress by 0.039s. 

Next was an interesting duel between Nato and Müller, considering the latter is expected to replace the Andretti driver next season. On this occasion, Nato came out on top to progress to the semi finals.

Evans took on Vergne in the final duel and set a scorching lap-time. The Jaguar driver posted a stellar 1:10.283 which was the fastest lap in the quarter finals, to defeat Vergne by three tenths of a second.

Moving into the semi finals and the opener was against Buemi and Wehrlein, in a customer Jaguar versus factory Porsche fight! Wehrlein set an average lap whilst Frijns set a flier, to defeat the German by four tenths of a second. 

The second semi-final was the opposite, as it was the customer Porsche of Nato against the factory Jaguar of Evans. Bizarrely, both driver set disappointing lap times, yet Evans did just enough to defeat Nato and progress to the final. 

So, the final was between Evans and Buemi, a factory Jaguar driver fighting for the title against a customer Jaguar driver fighting for very little. 

Manufacturer orders were clearly not being used as Buemi pushed for pole; however, Evans snatched P1 and three points after setting a 1:10.622.

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