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Vandoorne narrowly misses out on pole position for E-Prix New York
- GPblog.com
Nick Cassidy has achieved his third pole position of his career in New York. In the final, he defeated title contender Stoffel Vandoorne and will therefore start first in the race. Still, the result is good news for the Belgian, as all his title rivals were disappointing in qualifying and will therefore start from midfield.
In the first half of qualifying, both Vandoorne and title leader Eduardo Mortara were allowed to go straight onto the street circuit in New York. A crash by Sergio Sette Camera brought the rest inside after just three minutes due to a red flag. With nine minutes left on the clock, the ten drivers got the green flag again, after which the fast times could be set.
Rain creates unrest
Robin Frijns, Nick Cassidy, Stoffel Vandoorne and Sebastien Buemi managed to finish in the top four, allowing them to move on to the knock-out system for pole position. Mortara only managed to finish fifth. As a result, the championship leader will start ninth tomorrow, just ahead of Nyck De Vries.
In the second part of qualifying, there was spectacle again. Due to the rain, the first laps were immediately the fastest laps. As the session progressed, the rain started to get heavier and heavier, causing António Félix da Costa, Mitch Evans and Jean-Eric Vergne to all disappoint and fail to make the knockout stages.
Surprising times on drying track
In the knock-out system, Frijns and Vandoorne were paired with Pascal Wherlein and Alexander Sims. Frijns, didn't manage to beat the German in the quarter-final, while Vandoorne with his Mercedes did manage to reach the semi-finals. There, he took on Lucas Di Grassi and this duel again ended in favour of the Belgian.
In the pole position final, Vandoorne took on Nick Cassidy, Frijns' teammate. Cassidy was 0.008 faster than Vandoorne, which means he will start from first place for the third time in his career.