Punta ePrix: D'Ambrosio leads Dragon front-row lockout

Ex-Virgin Formula 1 driver D'Ambrosio was the third driver to set a lap in the final Super Pole session, beating Duval by 0.377s to take provisional pole on a 1m15.498s.

Lucas di Grassi (Abt Audi Sport) was next up, but backed off at the end of an untidy lap to go fourth behind DS Virgin's Sam Bird, before Buemi forfeited any chance of making it three poles in a row when he ran wide at Turn 8 on his flying lap.

The Swiss driver will start fifth, one place ahead of Renault e.dams teammate Nicolas Prost, who missed out on a Super Pole berth by just over a tenth.

Daniel Abt will start seventh, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa, Bruno Senna and Oliver Turvey.

Story of the session

Turvey was the man to beat in the opening group, setting an early benchmark of 1m16.154s, but the NEXTEV TCR driver was quickly shuffled down the order when the second group took to the track.

In Group 2, di Grassi went fastest on a 1m15.115s, beating D’Ambrosio by three tenths as Bird moved into third ahead of Prost and Turvey.

Group 3 was topped by Duval, the Audi WEC driver slotting in third, six tenths off the pace, as Abt and da Costa narrowly missed out on top five slots.    

It was then Prost’s turn to be demoted from the Super Pole positions in the final group, as Buemi went fastest of all on a 1m15.011s.

That was over a second clear of nearest challenger Senna, while Jacques Villeneuve put his Venturi machine in the barriers – compromising Simona de Silvestro’s lap in the process.

Also hitting trouble was Jean-Eric Vergne, who blew any chance of a strong grid position at the track where he took pole on his Formula E debut a year ago by cutting a chicane during his hot lap in Group 1 - and was then badly baulked by Nathanael Berthon.

Formula E debutant Oliver Rowland very nearly put his Mahindra in the wall on his flying lap in Group 3, and will line up 16th ahead of Vergne and Villeneuve.

Qualifying results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Dragon Racing	1:15.498
2	Loic Duval	Dragon Racing	1:15.875
3	Sam Bird	Virgin Racing	1:16.109
4	Lucas di Grassi	Audi Sport Team Abt	1:16.635
5	Sébastien Buemi	DAMS	1:19.811
6	Nicolas Prost	DAMS	1:15.913
7	Daniel Abt	Audi Sport Team Abt	1:15.993
8	Antonio Felix da Costa	Team Aguri	1:16.014
9	Bruno Senna	Mahindra Racing	1:16.048
10	Oliver Turvey	China Racing	1:16.154
11	Robin Frijns	Andretti Autosport	1:16.255
12	Nelson Piquet Jr.	China Racing	1:16.300
13	Stéphane Sarrazin	Venturi	1:16.353
14	Nathanael Berthon	Team Aguri	1:17.573
15	Simona de Silvestro	Andretti Autosport	1:18.281
16	Oliver Rowland	Mahindra Racing	1:19.414
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Virgin Racing	1:19.946
18	Jacques Villeneuve	Venturi	No time