Formula E

Qualifying in Monaco: Rowland crashes in final duel, Barnard celebrates pole position on Saturday

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Shiv Gohil / Spacesuit Media

Taylor Barnard secured pole position in Saturday's Formula E race in Monaco. In the final duel, the McLaren driver benefited from a driving error by Oliver Rowland, who hit the wall hard with his Nissan. Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro) starts from third place after a strong qualifying session.

Group A: Rowland fastest, Wehrlein has to tremble

World championship leader Oliver Rowland and world champion Pascal Wehrlein were among those who took to the track in the first group. Nyck de Vries, who had been very fast in free practice, was one of the secret favourites. Sam Bird was the first to go full power after just under eight minutes - but missed the chicane in the process. Rowland did better, setting the first serious time. He was followed by de Vries, Max Günther and Jake Dennis. Then it was already time for the decisive laps.

Wehrlein was able to improve, but he was just under two tenths of a second behind Rowland, who won Group A! Dennis improved to second place ahead of de Vries. Wehrlein narrowly made it into the duel phase in fourth place, while his compatriot Günther was just 74 thousandths of a second off the quarter-finals. Bird, Nico Müller, Jean-Eric Vergne, Norman Nato, Sebastien Buemi and Zane Maloney finished behind them.

Group B: Ticktum sensational, Evans takes the maximum

In Group B, all eyes were on Dan Ticktum, who had won both free practice sessions. Another exciting question was how the two Jaguar drivers, who had celebrated a one-two victory in the Principality last year, would fare. After a few warm-up laps, the first serious times once again only came after a good nine out of twelve minutes. However, they were clearly slower than in Group A. Before the decisive laps, Taylor Barnard was in the lead ahead of Robin Frijns, Mitch Evans and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Now things got serious. Evans went ahead and took the lead. However, Ticktum was a mighty three tenths of a second faster! Barnard finished third, Robin Frijns fourth. As a result, Edo Mortara narrowly missed out on fifth place. Behind him were David Beckmann, Stoffel Vandoorne, a disappointing Felix da Costa and Lucas di Grassi. Nick Cassidy's dismal season continued with penultimate place in the group. Only Jake Hughes was worse, whose Maserati MSG team barely saw land at his home race.

Overview: Formula E qualifying in Monaco

Quarter-finals

QF1: Nyck de Vries vs Jake Dennis

In the first duel of Saturday, de Vries and Dennis went toe-to-toe - with a slight advantage for the Dutchman. Sector 2 also went to the Mahindra driver, and by a somewhat clearer margin. Because de Vries was also better in the final section of the track, he confidently beat Dennis by 1.8 tenths of a second.

QF2: Pascal Wehrlein vs Oliver Rowland

Wehrlein and Rowland then faced off once again - with the reigning world champion usually coming out on top. However, Rowland had the better first sector. In the second section of the circuit, the Nissan driver extended his lead to more than three tenths of a second before Wehrlein countered again. In the end, however, it was not enough for the German. Rowland advanced to the semi-finals with a lead of one and a half tenths of a second.

QF3: Taylor Barnard vs. Mitch Evans

In the first sector, Evans coped slightly better than youngster Barnard. However, the second part of the track clearly went to the McLaren driver, who thus took the virtual lead. Now it came down to the final sector - which Barnard also won. In the end, he had a lead of almost four tenths of a second over last year's winner of the Monaco E-Prix. Barnard, who made his Formula E debut in the Principality a year ago, was therefore in the final four.

QF4: Robin Frijns vs. Dan Ticktum

Ticktum continued where he had finished every session on Saturday so far - in the lead. However, sector 2 went to Frijns, making things exciting once again. However, Ticktum worked his magic once again in sector 3, beating the Envision driver by 1.7 tenths of a second. Cupra Kiro was back in the semi-finals of a Formula E qualifying session for the first time since Sergio Sette Camara at the 2024 Berlin E-Prix.

Semi-final

SF1: Nyck de Vries vs Oliver Rowland

Rowland opened the first semi-final with a strong first sector. He was just slower than de Vries in the second sector. In the end, however, it was enough for the overall Formula E leader: Rowland beat the season 7 world champion by 2.2 tenths of a second and qualified for the final.

HF2: Dan Ticktum vs Taylor Barnard

Ticktum also got off to the slightly better start in his second duel. However, Barnard held his own and decided the second section narrowly in his favour. As the McLaren youngster also won the third section of the track, he prevailed over Ticktum by just over a tenth of a second - what a high-class duel! The final was another duel between Barnard and his biggest supporter Rowland.

Final: Oliver Rowland vs Taylor Barnard

Rowland started the final duel for pole position with a crucial mistake: The Briton entered the first corner with too much speed and hit the wall hard with the left flank. Although he was able to continue without any visible damage at first, he more or less crawled back to the pits. Barnard, on the other hand, reeled off his programme, completed his lap and took his second pole position in Formula E! In the Nissan pits, however, a longer midday shift could be on the cards if the damage to Rowland's car is more extensive.

The sixth round of the 2024-25 Formula E World Championship season will take place on Saturday afternoon at 3 pm (CEST). e-Formula.news will follow the race as usual in the Formula E live ticker - ideal as a "second screen" for real fans!

Results, times & starting grid

Championship standings (drivers, teams & manufacturers)

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