Antonio Felix da Costa will surely secure his maiden Formula E title after a strong showing in qualifying sees him lining up on the front row of the grid for round nine of the championship.
The Portuguese driver holds a 68-point lead in the driver’s standings, and his title challengers all faltered with Maximilian Gunther only managing fifteenth, Lucas Di Grassi twelfth and Mitch Evans eleventh.
Da Costa was only just pipped to pole by his team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne as DS Techeetah continued to show their pace advantage over the rest of the field, as they were three tenths faster than the Nissan e.dams of Oliver Rowland behind them.
The other Nissan of Sebastien Buemi was in fourth, with Nyck de Vries and a much improved Felipe Massa the other drivers to maker the Super Pole shootout.
Mahindra Racing couldn’t quite match their qualifying efforts from yesterday but won’t be too disappointed with Alex Lynn again taking advantage of going out in the last group and setting the seventh fastest time, with Jerome D’Ambrosio in ninth.
Former DTM champion Rene Rast also showed signs of improvement as he only narrowly missed out on the super pole shootout.
And it was a more encouraging session for Panasonic Jaguar Racing as Mitch Evans set the second fastest time in the opening qualifying group before dropping down to eleventh, with James Calado starting in an improved fourteenth place.