Jarno Trulli proved that experience was the most important factor as the 40 year old claimed his first pole since 2009, and the best chance going into the Grand Prix. He managed to put in a quick lap in the first session which included a final sector that was almost impossible to beat, he will be joined by Lucas di Grassi on the front row.
Group 1
Jarno Trulli, Nelson Piquet Jr., Vitantonio Liuzzi, Bruno Senna, Antonio Felix da Costa
The first group saw Piquet lead the drivers out, and with free air, go fastest in the first run. After an instillation lap, Piquet,managed a 1 minute 22 second lap, before Trulli put in a shocking run to go top and be the first driver into the 1:21s. With team mate Liuzzi going second it was clear to see the Trulli Formula E cars were use to the circuit. To many’s surprise, Piquet did not improve, so Trulli lead from Liuzzi, Piquet, Senna and da Costa.
Group 2
Scott Speed, Jaime Alguersuari, Stephane Sarrazin, Jean-Eric Vergne, Salvador Duran
In the second group it was Alguersuari straight on the pace, but Vergne looked good after setting a purple first sector. Despite this the lap waned away and he ended up he managed third in front of his team-mate Speed. Out of sight of many people, Sarrazin managed to go second, but was unable to improve at the end after being held up by Alguersuari, no action was taken against the Virgin Racing Driver. So the session ended with Sarrazin second, Vergne third and Speed fifth.
Group 3
Charles Pic, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Prost, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Nick Heidfeld
The most competitive group saw Prost lead the field out and immediately go onto a quick lap. He pushed his car up to sixth as the others coasted. However; on the following run, di Grassi looked on course for pole, but again, no-one could beat Trulli’s final sector and the Brazilian settled for second as Heidfeld went third. There would also be improvement for d’Ambrosio seeing him go fourth with Prost fifth and Pic settling for provisional thirteenth.
Group 4
Karun Chandhok, Sebastien Buemi, Sam Bird, Daniel Abt, Loic Duval
As the drivers fed onto track, it was clear they’d need something special to beat Trulli and his final sector time. Bird’s session was ruined after spinning in the first turn, taking away his first 200kw lap. He would fail to improve by much and ended up fifteenth. Meanwhile, Buemi leaped up to third, but struggled to improve on his final run. Abt managed fifth late on, with Duval going eighth and Chandhok remaining at the back.
This meant that Trulli was on pole ahead of di Grassi the championship leader, Buemi and the two Germans of Heidfeld and Abt.
Trulli said it had been a hard weekend without a race engineer or mechanic. “We have made some steps, some progress,” going on to say; “ We still have some work to do.”
