Nick Cassidy takes pole in New York on Saturday – Stoffel Vandoorne with top starting position in Formula E title fight
Qualifying for Saturday’s Formula E race in New York was a razor-thin affair: in the end, Envision driver Nick Cassidy prevailed by the tiny margin of 0.008 seconds to start from pole position.
Cassidy edged out Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne in an exciting qualifying session. Earlier, the New Zealander eliminated Jaguar driver Sam Bird in the quarter-finals and Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein in the semi-finals in the knockout stages.
“The track was changing all the time, that was the key. You had to cope with that. I’m just happy to have a good qualifying. This year has been tough for me so far. In Marrakech it felt like we turned the tables and understood things. To prove that today was important,”
“Second row on the grid, a good qualifying,” Porsche driver Wehrlein summed up his qualifying on ‘ran’. “Those were difficult conditions. The track was different every lap. In the end it was close to get into the final. In hindsight, you always think you could have found that one tenth. But still, I’m quite happy. “
Three Formula E title contenders fail in group stage
Vandoorne narrowly missed out on pole position for the race but still lands a big point in the title fight. The Belgian is the only driver from the quartet leading the overall standings to make it past the group stage.
Qualifying has been red flagged after this incident for @sergiosettecama
We’re glad to see the @DragonRacing_FE driver is out of the car and ok following the crash!
2022 NYCEPrix pic.twitter.com/NhmYg3STpf
– ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 16, 2022
Overall leader Edoardo Mortara narrowly retired in fifth place in Group A. Earlier, the session had to be interrupted with the red flag in the first group. This was triggered by an accident of Sergio Sette Camara in the Dragon Penske car.
In the other group, Mitch Evans in seventh and Jean-Eric Vergne in eighth were also affected. Both reacted too late to the onset of rain and were therefore unable to set a competitive time. Wehrlein’s team-mate Andre Lotterer also retired in the group stage.
This means that Vandoorne will start the race in the best position among the title contenders. The Mercedes driver finished third in the first group and eliminated Alexander Sims in the Mahindra and Venturi driver Lucas di Grassi on his way to the final.
Saturday’s Formula E race in New York starts in the evening at 19:00 CEST. On Sunday, another qualifying session and race are on the agenda.
