Qualifying at Long Beach concluded with a surprisingly quick lap from Sebastian Buemi to put him on pole position with the new fastest time of the weekend.
Group 1:
Jaime Alguersuari, Nick Heidfeld, Charles Pic, Scott Speed, Jean-Eric Vergne
Heidfeld held back to get clear track as the others tried to get up to speed early in the session. Vergne however only used 150 of his 200 KW in his first run, as a result he improved in his second lap to beat the fastest time from practice. With team mate Speed only 0.05 seconds behind it was close between the two Andretti Formula E cars for provisional pole. Both of them were 0.3 seconds faster than anyone else.
Group 2:
Sam Bird, Loic Duval, Nico Prost, Bruno Senna, Jarno Trulli
Like Vergne all the drivers did a banker lap in order to get the car up to speed before releasing all of the power. Bird was faster than Vergne in the first sector but couldn’t keep up the pace throughout the lap and went third. However, it was Prost who gained the most, he went top, being the first driver into the 56 seconds. Meanwhile Duval had issues with his car.
Group 3:
Antonio Felix da Costa, Salvador Duran, Lucas di Grassi, Nelson Piquet Jr., Stephane Sarrazin
Piquet and di Grassi had been fastest throughout practice and were hoping for quick times as the cars set their provisional lap. On their first quick run, they all struggled, however, 1 lap later and da Costa leaped up to fourth. Piquet went second, but could have gone fastest if he wasn’t held up by Sarrazin who was on his own quick lap. The session ended dramatically as di Grassi’s car was smoking after a jump battery caught fire.
Group 4:
Daniel Abt, Sebastian Buemi, Karun Chandhok, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Vitantonio Liuzzi
With Buemi in contention for pole, he was frustrated to find a yellow flag holding him up in the final sector after Liuzzi parked his car. The Italian pulled off to the side of Turn 7 after hitting the wall on the exit of Turn 5. After the restart, Abt proved his pace by going fastest only to be beaten immediately by Buemi.
So Buemi will be on pole for the second time this season infront of Abt, Prost, Piquet Jr. and di Grassi.
Long Beach Qualifying Times
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