Formula E News: Wehrlein puts Porsche on pole in Monaco

TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein took his third Julius Baer Pole Position of Season 10, navigating the challenging but beautiful streets of Monaco. The German driver was on pole by 0.448s, going up against the DS PENSKE of Stoffel Vandoorne in the finals.

The pole position and subsequent three points also promotes Wehrlein to the top of the World Championship standings, as he was tied with Andretti Porsche driver Jake Dennis.

It was an action-packed qualifying, with both Jaguar TCS Racing pilots Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy failing to make the Duel Finals. For Evans, he had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits and Cassidy clipped the wall on his flying lap.

Several big names failed to make the Duels, with the likes of Dennis, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and last year’s front-row starters Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) and Jake Hughes (NEOM McLaren) all missing out on a slot in the top eight.

Final 

Pascal Wehrlein took on Stoffel Vandoorne for the title of pole position, and it was an easy win for the Porsche driver who went almost half a second quicker. Wehrlein has two previous front row starts in Monaco but neither he nor Porsche have ever taken pole for the Monaco E-Prix until now. In fact, Porsche’s last pole for a single-seater race in Monaco was as engine supplier to Alain Prost’s McLaren at the 1986 Monaco GP. PENSKE also have their first-ever front-row start in Monaco.

Semi Finals 

Mitch Evans was unable to continue his streak of topping every session, when he had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits on his flying lap against Pascal Wehrlein. That sent the Porsche driver through automatically, but it isn’t over for Evans with so many overtaking opportunities in the race later this afternoon.

The last spot in the Finals was between Cassidy and Vandoorne. Nick Cassidy has never started in the top six in Monaco, and Vandoorne’s best starting grid position was here in 2022 when he started fourth. Things looked close, but a rare mistake for Cassidy saw him clip the wall and meant Vandoorne progressed into the Final.

Jake Dennis and Andretti continued their qualifying woes and start yet another Formula E race on the back foot in 18th on a track that is difficult to pass on.

Starting Lineup