Nick Cassidy delight as torrential rain torments red-flagged Shanghai Formula E qualifying

Nick Cassidy secured a bizarre pole position for the second race of Formula E's Shanghai E-Prix, as heavy rain caused torment.

Qualifying was delayed by 45 minutes due to unsafe track conditions, caused by torrential rainfall throughout the day. 

When the session did get underway, it was decided that only the group stage would take place and decide the grid. It meant which ever group had the quickest lap time, those 11 cars would start on the odd side of the grid.

Cassidy set the fastest lap of qualifying in the opening group, putting him on pole with Antonio Felix da Costa alongside him in second – da Costa topped Group B. Oliver Rowland suffered a disastrous session and qualified in 17th.

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Group stage

The opening group at the Shanghai International Circuit featured championship leader Oliver Rowland, as well as both Jaguars, reigning world champion Pascal Wehrlein and Saturday's race winner Maximilian Günther. 

Conditions were clearly very tricky, although lap times improved with each circulation of the track. That was until the closing minutes of the first group as conditions worsened again. 

In the end, Nick Cassidy topped the first group on a 1m 31.305, ahead of Wehlein, Jake Hughes and Nyck de Vries who span during the session. 

It left the New Zealander with a nervous wait to see if his lap time would be enough for pole position. However, it was clear he would have pole the moment Group B started, as heavy rain had restarted.

Several drivers spun, including Sebastien Buemi who suffered a reported technical failure, triggering a red flag with four minutes remaining.

When the session resumed, it was quickly red-flagged a second time due to dangerous conditions. As a result, qualifying was not resumed. 

Antonio Felix da Costa topped the group but was not quicker than Cassidy, putting him second on the grid. Lucas di Grassi will start from fourth.

More heavy rain is forecast, although the race is scheduled to start at 13:00 local time (06:00 BST).