Sebastien Buemi clinches dramatic Mexico City Formula E pole after lap deletion

Sebastien Buemi will start Formula E's Mexico City E-Prix from pole position despite not setting the quickest lap in his final against Taylor Barnard. 

DS Penske's Barnard had gone faster than Buemi but had a huge snap of oversteer on the exit of the final corner, causing him to exceed track limits and have his lap time deleted. 

Buemi will be on pole for Formula E's 150th race, with Barnard, Edoardo Mortara and Mitch Evans completing the top four.

It was a disastrous qualifying for Pascal Wehrlein, who was eliminated in the group stage and starts from the sixth row of the grid. 

For Porsche in general it was a disappointing session, with not one of its six cars making the semi-final stage.

Duels

As was the case throughout qualifying, Buemi posted a weak first sector but found time in sector two. In all of his duels, that often saw him gain significant time. 

However, in the final, Barnard posted an exceptional first and second sector and was on track for pole position, until he went off track at the final corner.

To reach the final, Barnard first defeated Porsche's Nico Müller in the quarter finals, before narrowly beating Mahindra's Mortara in the semi finals. 

As for Buemi, he edged past Oliver Rowland in the quarter finals and then went comfortably quicker than Evans in the semi finals. 

In the other two quarter finals, Mortara defeated championship leader Jake Dennis, while Evans beat Dan Ticktum.

Group stage

As qualifying got underway in Mexico City, conditions remained cool given the mid-morning time of day. 

The opening group featured early championship leader Dennis, who topped first practice on Friday afternoon. Dennis added to his strong start by topping the first group. 

He went quickest and progressed to the duels after posting a 1m 06.492, with him being joined in the top four by Müller, Barnard and Mortara – Mahindra's Nyck de Vries missed out in last. 

It was a strong second group which featured Rowland and Wehrlein, the latter who entered the weekend having claimed back-to-back poles in Mexico City. 

However, it was not to be three in a row as Wehrlein suffered a shock group stage exit, only managing sixth fastest in the second group. Rowland did progress, in fourth. 

At the top of the second group was Buemi, who impressed in second practice and set the quickest group stage lap time of a 1m 06.328. Ticktum and Evans also made it into the duels.

Rookie Pepe Marti was slowest in the second group but will start from last anyways due to his back of the grid penalty from the season-opener.