Diriyah 2 – Qualifying: Rowland creates a sensation and takes pole position

• Forget the grid established yesterday, for the first Diriyah E-Prix of the weekend, that of this Saturday has nothing to do! The drivers in difficulty the day before woke up today, for the second day of racing in Saudi Arabia. The best example? Oliver Rowland (Nissan), qualified 14th and out of the points on Friday, took pole position for the second Saudi round!
• The Briton, back at Nissan this season, was impressive during qualifying: after setting the best time in Group B, he successively beat Jehan Daruvala (Maserati) in the quarters, Nick Cassidy (Jaguar) in the semis and finally Robin Frijns (Envision) in the final. Oliver Rowland takes his first pole position since the 2022 Seoul E-Prix.
• Conversely, the big players of yesterday were very discreet: Jake Dennis (Andretti), winner yesterday, was eliminated in the group phase with the 8th fastest time in Group B. Mitch Evans (Jaguar) he also missed the mark with the 7th time in Group A.
• The two French people qualified for the final phase, Jean-Éric Vergne (DS Penske) and Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan), were eliminated during the quarter-finals and will start 8th and 7th respectively on the grid. Jean-Éric Vergne, polesitter and second in the race on Friday during the first round of the weekend, was eliminated by Robin Frijns. Sacha Fenestraz, author of the best time in Group A, was beaten by Stoffel Vandoorne. Norman Nato (Andretti), 10th in his group, will start 20th.
• The qualifying session was delayed for a long time following the accident Sébastien Buemi during the group stage. The Swiss completely missed braking for the first corner in his last attempt, and crashed his Envision into the TecPro barrier, resulting in a red flag with less than a minute remaining in the session. The stewards decided to delete Sébastien Buemi's best time during qualifying, and the Swiss will start 11th.

The incident that brought Group B's Qualifying session to an early end 💥

thanks @Sebastien_buemi is out of the car after this heavy contact with the wall.#DiriyahEPrice pic.twitter.com/R61XTAciaN

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) January 27, 2024

Diriyah 2, Qualifications – Ranking

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