Formula E qualifying in Berlin: Mortara secures 3rd pole position of the season

The qualifying session in Berlin sees Edoardo Mortara in the Mahindra on pole position, together with Pascal Wehrlein in the Porsche on the front row of the grid. Nico Müller in the second Porsche finishes qualifying in 6th place on the starting grid, while Maximilian Günther in the DS Penske can only secure 11th place. Zane Maloney made it to 7th on the grid after his very first entry in the qualifying duels.

Group A: Wehrlein tops the first group in qualifying

In the first group of qualifying, Pascal Wehrlein, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Oliver Rowland, Sebastien Buemi, Joel Eriksson, Taylor Barnard, Jean-Eric Vergne, Norman Nato and Felipe Drugovich were battling for their progression to the duel phase of qualifying. Buemi complained at the start that his right front tyre was ten degrees warmer than the other three tyres on his car.

The first fast laps came after around seven minutes of driving. Pascal Wehrlein took the lead of the field with a lap time of 0:58.369 minutes, closely followed by Felipe Drugovich, Nick Cassidy and Joel Eriksson. On the final lap, Taylor Barnard was able to push Eriksson from fourth place, but an improvement by Rowland prevented him from advancing. This meant that Wehrlein, Drugovich, Rowland and Cassidy made it through to the duel phase of qualifying.

For Barnard, Eriksson, Evans, Vergne, Buemi and Nato, qualifying ended in the group phase.

Group B: Ticktum fastest, di Grassi with contact

In Group B, Edo Mortara, Antonio Felix da Costa, Nico Müller, Dennis, Jake Ticktum, Pepe Marti, Nyck de Vries, Max Günther, Zane Maloney and Lucas di Grassi battled for their place in the duels.

For the first five minutes, the champion of the second Formula E season in the Lola Yamaha ABT car, di Grassi, led the field, albeit with a rather slow time of 1:03.166 minutes. Before he and his competitors could improve their times, the Brazilian made contact with the wall in turn 4. "It was only a light contact" di Grassi communicated to his team over the radio, but the contact nevertheless ended his qualifying session early. As the other drivers then improved their times, di Grassi was unable to improve his time and dropped back significantly.

Dan Ticktum led the field with a lap time of 0:58.337 minutes, closely followed by Mortara, Müller and Maloney. The Lola Yamaha ABT driver improved his time once again at the end, pushing the Swiss driver in the Porsche back to fourth place, meaning that Ticktum, Mortara, Maloney and Müller made it into the duels. Felix da Costa, Günther, Dennis, Marti and de Vries were unable to secure a ticket for the duel phase.

Quarter finals

QF1: Oliver Rowland vs. Felipe Drugovich

Rowland extended his lead right from the start and was able to maintain it until the end. In the end, the Briton completed the lap 0.542 seconds faster than the Brazilian in the Andretti and thus advanced to the semi-final.

QF2: Nick Cassidy vs. Pascal Wehrlein

In the first sector of the quarter-final, Cassidy was initially ahead, but Wehrlein gradually reduced his lead over the rest of the lap. In the end, Wehrlein narrowly secured his place in the semi-finals. His lead was 0.075 seconds in the end.

QF3: Edoardo Mortara vs Zane Maloney

For Zane Maloney, it was the first time in his Formula E career that he went into the qualifying duels. However, a dominant performance by Edoardo Mortara prevented the driver from Barbados from gaining more experience in the duels. Mortara triumphed with a significant lead of 0.760 seconds.

QF4: Dan Ticktum vs Nico Müller

Müller left the racing line at the start of his lap and lost time as a result. Ticktum benefited from this and won the duel with a lead of 0.405 seconds.

Semi-final

SF1: Pascal Wehrlein vs Oliver Rowland

A dominant performance from Wehrlein proved crucial from the start to the end of the decisive lap. This was despite the fact that he had previously informed his team over the radio that he had made slight contact with the wall in his quarter-final. The German in the Porsche trumped Rowland with a 0.116-second faster lap time and thus secured his ticket to the final.

SF2: Dan Ticktum vs Edoardo Mortara

The current championship runner-up, Mortara, made a strong start to the decisive lap and was able to prevail. In the end, he drove the lap 0.349 seconds faster than the Briton in the Cupra Kiro, allowing the Swiss driver to secure his place in the final.

Final: Edoardo Mortara vs Pascal Wehrlein

The two championship leaders battled for pole position in the qualifying final. However, Swiss driver Mortara secured the top position for the race on Saturday afternoon with the best times in the first and second sectors of the track at Tempelhof.

The race in Berlin takes place at 4:05 pm (CEST). e-Formula.news will be following the race as usual in the Formula E live ticker - ideal as a "second screen" for real fans!

Results, lap times & starting grid

Championship standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)