Formula E

Formula E in Portland: Vergne secures record pole position on Sunday

Tobias Wirtz

Tobias Wirtz
Jean-Eric-Vergne-Pole-Position-Portland

Joao Filipe / DPPI (via Hankook)

Jean-Eric has secured pole position for Sunday's race at the Portland E-Prix. The DS Penske driver defeated Antonio Felix da Costa in the final race and secured three points. Sam Bird and Robin Frijns will start the race from the second row of the grid. Title contender Mitch Evans, on the other hand, weakened and will only start from 11th place.

Group A: Frijns dominant, Evans fails

All four jaguar powered cars were in the first group. The works team had dominated the 3rd free practice session in the morning. But Robin Frijns won the first run, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, Sebastien Buemi and Nick Cassidy. Jake Hughes in the McLaren went off the track in the fast chicane at turn 10/11 and had to drive through the grass.

The two Jaguar drivers stayed on the track and finished in the top four, while all the other drivers came into the pits to change tyres. Then the lap times tumbled: Jehan Daruvala and Jake Hughes moved into the top four, but Jean-Eric Vergne fought back to set the second-fastest time. The pole-sitter from the previous day was the one to suffer: Mitch Evans was only sixth and retired. Frijns advanced to the quarter-finals as the winner of the group, while Vergne, Cassidy and Hughes also progressed. Max Günther, on the other hand, only finished eleventh.

Group B: Porsche continue with both cars, Dennis with mistake

In Group B, the four Porsche-powered cars raced. Antonio Felix da Costa made a mistake on his first fast lap in the first corner and drove hard over the curbs. Norman Nato and Caio Collet went off the track at turn 10. Stoffel Vandoorne set the fastest time on the first run ahead of Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein. Nobody in this group tried to get through without a tyre change.

Antonio Felix da Costa then moved into the lead, and then events came thick and fast: Jake Dennis went off the track, Sam Bird and Nyck de Vries pushed behind Felix da Costa. Wehrlein set the fourth-best lap time on his final lap, while Stoffel Vandoorne retired.

Overview: Formula E qualifying in Portland

Quarter-final

QF1: Vergne vs Cassidy

In the re-run of the Misano quarter-final, which Vergne won back then, Cassidy initially looked the quicker. However, the New Zealander lost three tenths of a second in the second sector, allowing Vergne to advance to the semi-finals.

QF2: Hughes vs. Frijns

In the second quarter-final, Frijns was significantly faster in the first sector and then fuelled his lead for a long time. In the end, however, it was very close, with Frijns retaining a lead of 14 thousandths of a second.

QF3: de Vries vs. Bird

In the duel between the two drivers involved in the accident in Shanghai, Bird was clearly the faster driver: the McLaren driver could even afford to make a mistake in the centre sector, but was still clearly ahead in the end.

QF4: Wehrlein vs. Felix da Costa

In the internal Porsche duel, Felix da Costa got off to a much better start to his lap and was already more than three tenths of a second ahead after the first sector. Both drivers were on an equal footing for the rest of the lap, but the Portuguese driver still took a big lead into the next lap. Wehrlein, on the other hand, did not put in a good lap, only Nyck de Vries was slower in the quarter-final. The world championship runner-up will therefore start from 7th on the grid.

Semi-final

SF1: Vergne vs Frijns

The lead swapped back and forth in the first semi-final: Frijns started his lap slightly faster, but Vergne then took the lead in the second sector and finished the lap more than 0.2 seconds ahead of the Envision driver. Vergne made it to the final for the fifth time this season.

SF2: Bird vs da Costa

Antonio Felix da Costa went into the duel as the favourite and put in a clean lap: with a lap time of 1:08.856 minutes, he gave Bird no chance. However, the Briton was faster than Robin Frijns and secured third place on the grid. This was Felix da Costa's first appearance in the final since Sao Paulo 2023.

Final: Vergne vs Felix da Costa

Vergne led the way in the final duel. The DS Penske driver drove a strong first sector, but Felix da Costa was just a few thousandths of a second behind. Both drivers were completely on an equal footing, with only 0.025 seconds separating them in Vergne's favour in the end. The Frenchman thus achieved his 17th pole position in Formula E, making him the sole record holder in the electric racing series.

The 14th race of the 2024 Formula E World Championship season will take place late on Sunday evening at 11pm (CEST).

Results & lap times

Championship standings (drivers & teams)

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