Formula E: Mitch Evans nips Vergne for pole at Misano

Mitch Evans will start the opening race of the Misano E-Prix double-header from pole position, after defeating Jean-Eric Vergne in the final duel.

The Jaguar driver entered qualifying as an outsider for pole, with Vergne having been the clear favorite after he topped both free practice one and free practice two. Evans progressed into the final after defeating Sam Bird in the quarter-final and Jake Hughes in the semi-final.

In the final, the New Zealander defeated Vergne by 0.160 secs after setting a 1:17.068. Behind Evans and Vergne on the front row, Pascal Wehrlein will start in third ahead of Hughes, whilst Nico Müller, Oliver Rowland, Bird and Maximilian Günther completed the top eight.

Evans, who has had great success in Italy in the past in Formula E, managed to keep his cool in the Misano heat to beat Vergne. The Final was the first time all weekend Vergne hadn’t been quickest in a session, and will line up second. By being in the Finals and automatically starting on the front row of Round 6 of the Misano E-Prix, Vergne has also tied Envision Racing driver Sebastien Buemi’s record of career front row starts with 24.

Jake Hughes Disqualified

Jake Hughes, who was on-track to start from fourth on the grid for Round 6 in Misano, will now be required to start from the back after being found in breach of the Formula E technical regulations.

In the decision document it was stated that “the fire extinguisher was not armed during the qualifying session.” He has been given permission to start the race and described it as “disappointing but rogue” when asked about it after qualifying.

Final 

Evans and Vergne tried their best to be the first polesitter here in Misano, but there could only be one winner: Mitch Evans. It’s the first time he’s been on pole this season and the first for Jaguar as a team. It was the only time that Vergne hasn’t gone quickest in a session all weekend, topping the timesheets in both practice sessions and all the qualifying groups until then.

Semis

Jean-Eric Vergne battled championship leader Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche) as the two met in the first Semi Final. Vergne has looked at home at this circuit all weekend, going quickest in every session up to this point and the Semi Final was no exception as he progressed into the Final.

The second Semi consisted of Jake Hughes and Mitch Evans, with the Jaguar driver continuing his theme of running well in Italy. Evans would finish 0.255s ahead after a mistake from Hughes on his lap that saw him launch over some of the kerbing. It’s a shame for Hughes, who has been running well all day and became the first driver to break into the 1m16s around this Misano circuit.

Quarters

First up was the tasty battle between Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein – who both have two respective pole positions between them this season. Rowland has taken pole on both previous occasions he has reached the Duel stages this year in Diriyah and last time out in Tokyo, but today that achievement came to an end. Wehrlein managed to finish ahead on their laps, with Rowland making a few small mistakes on his way to miss out on the Semi Finals.

Next was Vergne and Maximilian Guenther, with JEV continuing his streak of topping every session of the weekend to sail through to the Semis. The DS PENSKE driver has been on pole in Italy at Rome 2022, in Race 2 of the weekend. Although this is the fifth Duels for Guenther in six races, an error on his lap saw him finish over a second behind Vergne.

Then came Sam Bird and Mitch Evans. The former teammates at Jaguar went up against each other but it was Evans who progressed into the next round. Much like Guenther and Wehrlein, Evans was also in the Duels for the fifth time in six rounds. Despite losing out in the Quarter Finals in the last two rounds, he went through today to end that streak.

Finally, Nico Mueller of ABT CUPRA went head-to-head with McLaren’s Jake Hughes. The 29-year-old papaya driver has lost his last four consecutive Quarter Final Duels, with his last win in a Duel being Monaco last year when he ended up on pole position but sailed through today. It was still another great qualifying performance from Mueller to reach his third consecutive Duels. It’s also the first NEOM McLaren Duels win all of Season 10.

Group A

Jean-Eric Vergne continued his strong run of form, as he topped another session in Misano. The two-time Formula E champion went quickest in FP1 and FP2, whereas his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne finished down in ninth.

Joining JEV in the Duels was the TAG Heuer Porsche Pascal Wehrlein who ended the session in second, with Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Maserati MSG Racing’s Maximilian Guenther being the fastest four in the group.

Rowland, who is currently on a trio of consecutive podiums, had a big slide over the start/finish straight as the session came to an end. The Yorkshireman didn’t improve on his lap time and stayed third, but did have a big swapper and kick up some dirt which wasn’t ideal for his teammate Sacha Fenestraz who was just behind and finished sixth.

Antonio Felix da Costa of Porsche once again failed to make it through to the Duels, and ended the Group A in seventh. The Season 6 champ said that traffic was an influence, with ERT’s Sergio Sette Camara locking up ahead of him.

Group B

Next up was Group B, with NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes going quickest of the 11 drivers. Hughes has experience here before racing in junior categories, and was 0.163s ahead of Mitch Evans in second. Hughes’ teammate Sam Bird also flew into the Duels in third and ABT CUPRA’s Nico Mueller making it three Duels appearances in a row.

The Swiss driver popped in the great lap at the end of the session, and in doing so knocked out Nick Cassidy. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver had a tough start to his morning, going into the barriers at the end of FP2 to avoid slower-moving cars ahead of him. The car was broken but the team managed to get it back together and send him out in the short window of time.

Andretti seemed to struggle that session, with the first three laps times of Jake Dennis and Norman Nato being deleted from that session as they were under investigation for technical infractions. Reigning World Champion, Jake Dennis, radioed that he had hit the wall of the chicane on one of his laps, and would only be able to qualify in 10th.

Teammate Nato did slightly better in seventh, but for the Porsche-powered cars, it’ll be a big task to make their way up to any kind of podium result here in Misano. However, unlike previous circuits such as Tokyo, this race could easily see some big position climbers across the grid and with the efficiency of their powertrain, the Andretti boys could still be in for a good haul of points.

Starting Lineup