Jean-Eric Vergne has taken his third ABB FIA Formula E pole position of the season in Punta Del Este after the top four were all handed grid penalties after qualifying. The Frenchman made a huge mistake in the first sector of his flying lap and was classified fifth after the super-pole session. But, provisional pole-man Lucas Di Grassi, along with Alex Lynn and Oliver Turvey were all stripped of their times after they hit the bollard at the turns 14/15 chicane which defined the track limits at that corner.
Meanwhile, Mitch Evans in Jaguar, who was classified third has been moved back to sixteenth after the Kiwi’s car was understood to have ‘discrepancies with weight distribution’ according to Formula E sources following a battery change between practice sessions.
This means that Jean-Eric Vergne will head into the Punta Del Este e-Prix some eighteen points ahead of his closest championship rival Felix Rosenqvist, who will start in twelfth place after claiming another Julius Baer pole position.
In a reshuffled grid, Vergne will start from pole ahead of Di Grassi, Lynn and Turvey, who were only docked their super-pole times, with Daniel Abt completing the top five.
Other changes include Luca Filippi in the Nio, who has been docked three positions for speeding under red flags in second practice when Tom Blomqvist‘s MS&AD Andretti hit the wall. Talking of Blomqvist, that accident required a gearbox change which has dropped the British driver to the tail of the field, starting just ahead of Nico Prost who had a high-speed crash in qualifying. Finally, Jose Maria Lopez in the Dragon Racing machine will start one place higher in eighteenth after being hit with a penalty.