Formula E

Formula E in London: Cassidy takes pole position for season finale, Evans & Wehrlein on 2nd row of the grid!

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Nick Cassidy secured pole position in qualifying for the 2024 Formula E season finale in London! In the final duel, the Jaguar driver beat Max Günther in the Maserati with a fabulous lap, reducing the gap to championship leader Pascal Wehrlein to four points. The Porsche driver finished fourth on the grid - directly behind his fiercest rival Mitch Evans. The three-way battle for the world title could not be closer ahead of the final race!

Group A: Cassidy can start - and sets an exclamation mark

The final qualifying session of the 2024 Formula E season began with good news for all Nick Cassidy fans: after the problem with his brake-by-wire system in the third free practice, Jaguar got his car back up and running in time. As a result, title contender Cassidy was one of the favourites in Group A. His toughest rivals in the battle for the duel phase were probably Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland, Sebastien Buemi, Robin Frijns and Jake Dennis - no easy task for the third-placed driver in the world championship!

Cassidy was also the first driver to come in for a tyre change after less than five minutes. The others followed shortly afterwards. By then, the top four were Rowland, Jake Hughes, Wehrlein and Sacha Fenestraz.

Cassidy opened the decisive phase with a new best time. Wehrlein was initially unable to match the New Zealander's lap. Surprisingly, there were hardly any improvements beyond that. Cassidy therefore won Group A, with Wehrlein finishing second! Sam Bird and Frijns also qualified for the quarter-finals. Rowland failed to qualify in fifth place ahead of Jehan Daruvala, Dan Ticktum, Hughes, Buemi (!), Fenestraz and still world champion Jake Dennis, who disappointed once again.

Group B: Evans also withstands pressure, Günther works his magic

In the second group, the focus was on one driver in particular: Mitch Evans. The pole-sitter from Saturday had the chance to draw level with championship leader Wehrlein in terms of points with another pole position. Wehrlein's team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, who had already announced on Saturday that he would drive for Wehrlein in the finale, was one of those who wanted to prevent this. After the first six minutes, Stoffel Vandoorne led the timesheets ahead of Felix da Costa, Sergio Sette Camara and Lucas di Grassi. Evans was only fifth by then.

Then things got serious, and Evans withstood the pressure: 1st place for him at first, but only with a lap time of 1:10.509 minutes. However, many riders were still able to improve, especially Max Günther. The German won Group B with a strong lap! Evans remained in second place and also progressed. The two DS Penske drivers Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne also reached the quarter-finals. Not taking part: Felix da Costa, Norman Nato, di Grassi, Nico Müller, Sette Camara, Edo Mortara and Nyck de Vries.

Quarter finals

QF1: Sam Bird vs Pascal Wehrlein

The first quarter-final went as many had expected: World championship leader and favourite Wehrlein showed no weakness and set fastest times in all three sectors. With a lead of almost four tenths of a second, he literally knocked local favourite Bird out of the ExCeL exhibition hall. Wehrlein in the semi-finals, just like on Saturday!

QF2: Robin Frijns vs Nick Cassidy

Then things got more exciting, as Cassidy was still in contention for the title on Sunday. In the first sector, he was a good tenth of a second faster than Frijns, and the second section of the track also went to the Jaguar driver. Frijns was able to catch up in the end, but was beaten by just over a tenth of a second - Cassidy went on!

QF3: Stoffel Vandoorne vs. Mitch Evans

Then came Evans, the second Jaguar driver - against Vandoorne on his last day for DS Penske. Both were almost equally fast in the first sector, but then Vandoorne lost ground and lost almost four tenths of a second in the second sector. The bottom line was that he lost 2.34 tenths of a second to Evans at the end of the lap. The "Kiwi" therefore also advanced to the semi-finals.

VF4: Jean-Eric Vergne vs Max Günther

In the duel between the Stellantis cars from DS Penske and Maserati MSG Racing, Günther got off to the better start. However, sector 2 went clearly to Vergne, making it exciting once again. However, Günther kept a cool head in sector 3, undercut Vergne and beat the record Formula E pole-sitter by 74 thousandths of a second.

Semi-final

SF1: Pascal Wehrlein vs Nick Cassidy

The first semi-final was a direct clash between two title rivals. Wehrlein and Cassidy had already met once this year in the semi-finals in Mexico, with Wehrlein coming out on top. On the warm-up lap, Cassidy once again received the morning's brake system warning, but was able to continue. And he did so very quickly: Cassidy pulled out a good tenth of a second lead in the first sector. The second section of the track also went narrowly to the Jaguar driver. In sector 3, both were on an equal footing, meaning that Wehrlein was no longer able to counter. Cassidy confidently advanced to the final by 1.63 tenths of a second!

SF2: Max Günther vs Mitch Evans

Günther got off to an outstanding start in the second semi-final: He pulled out a lead of almost three tenths of a second in sector 1 - but lost it almost completely again in the second section! Although sector 3 also went to Evans, it was enough for Günther: the German qualified for the qualifying final against Cassidy with a lead of 46 thousandths of a second! As a result, it was already clear that Wehrlein would continue to start Sunday's race as the championship leader with a three-point lead - but directly behind his fiercest title rival Evans in fourth place!

Final: Nick Cassidy vs Max Günther

With a win in the qualifying final, Cassidy had the chance to reduce the gap to Wehrlein to four points - and that's exactly what he did. In the first sector, both drivers were still on an equal footing - with a slight advantage for Cassidy. But then the "Kiwi" flexed his muscles: The other two sectors also went to the Jaguar driver! With a fabulous record lap (1:09.871 minutes), he beat Günther by 1.69 tenths of a second and secured pole position, three championship points and first place on the grid for the season finale! Cassidy was suddenly back in possibly the best starting position ahead of the grand finale, as a win would have secured him the title.

The final race of the 2024 Formula E World Championship season will take place early on Sunday evening at 6 pm (CEST).

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers & teams)

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