BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver Jake Dennis starts on pole position for the DHL Valencia E-Prix 2021 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. This is Dennis’ first pole position in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. His last pole position in single-seaters was at the last race of the 2015 FIA European Formula 3 Championship season.
Dennis was also the leader at the end of group qualifying, beating Andre Lotterer (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E), Alex Lynn (Mahindra Racing), Tom Blomqvist (NIO 333 Racing), Oliver Turvey (NIO 333 Racing), and Norman Nato (ROKIT Venturi Racing).
The superpole shootout was in reverse finishing order to qualifying, and every driver who took part in this session improved on the one behind them as the track dried. It was a clean session with no mistakes.
Lotterer will have his first chance at scoring some points, and the Porsche team seemed to perform better today than they did in Rome. This was also Alex Lynn’s third back-to-back SuperPole session, as he participated in the sessions of Round four and Round five. The NIO 333 team is the only one that qualified both cars in Superpole today. Norman Nato made his second appearance in Superpole this season after the session of Rome Round four where he was on the front row alongside Nick Cassidy (Envision Virgin Racing).
The conditions were mixed during group qualifying, benefitting the drivers at the back of the championship standings and hindering the ones that were in group one of qualifying.
Nissan e.dams managed to put both their drivers in the top 10 and Sebastien Buemi‘s car was repaired after yesterday’s crash with Andre Lotterer. Sergio Sette Camara (Dragon/Penske Autosport) rounded off the top 10 in group qualifying.
Championship leader Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ Formula E team) will start twenty-third in the race after a penalty drops him three places. His teammate, Stoffel Vandoorne, currently second place in the drivers’ championship, will start nineteenth. It has been an up-and-down weekend for the German team so far, with Stoffel Vandoorne’s qualifying disqualification for tyre infringement and then his third-place finish in the race. Nyck de Vries was second in the race and managed to pass an energy-less Antonio Felix Da Costa (DS Techeetah) to take victory at the flag. The Mercedes team has a lot to do in terms of energy and attack mode management if they want to score points today.
Jaguar Racing is in a similar bind, as Mitch Evans and Sam Bird will start in the bottom eight positions, in sixteenth and twentieth. The Jaguar team was already off the pace yesterday: both drivers did not finish the race. Bird did not have enough energy left in his car, therefore he was disqualified and Mitch Evans retired from damage from a collision with Sergio Sette Camara.
Season four and season five Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne qualified seventh ahead of the Valencia E-Prix race, five places ahead of Felix Da Costa. The DS Techeetah team struggled in this morning’s qualifying session, both drivers only making it to eighteenth and twenty-second in the standings. The team was last year’s champion and their start to the season was quite poor. It remains to be seen if they can turn it around starting today, to kick off the rest of the season.
A dry race is forecast for the Valencia E-Prix but as yesterday has shown, anything can happen.
The race will start at 14:00 CET (13:00 BST).
Group Qualifying standings
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | 27 | Jake Dennis | GBR | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 1.31.855 |
| 2 | 36 | Andre Lotterer | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E | +0.103 |
| 3 | 94 | Alex Lynn | GBR | Mahindra Racing | +0.730 |
| 4 | 88 | Tom Blomqvist | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +0.872 |
| 5 | 8 | Oliver Turvey | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +1.095 |
| 6 | 71 | Norman Nato | FRA | ROKIT Venturi Racing | +1.300 |
| 7 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | FRA | DS Techeetah | +1.343 |
| 8 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Nissan e.dams | +1.481 |
| 9 | 23 | Sebastien Buemi | CHE | Nissan e.dams | +1.535 |
| 10 | 7 | Sergio Sette Camara | BRZ | Dragon-Penske Autosport | +1.597 |
| 11 | 29 | Alexander Sims | GBR | Mahindra Racing | +1.624 |
| 12 | 13 | Antonio Felix da Costa | POR | DS Techeetah | +1.749 |
| 13 | 99 | Pascal Wehrlein | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E | +1.890 |
| 14 | 33 | Rene Rast | GER | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +2.024 |
| 15 | 48 | Edoardo Mortara | CHE | ROKIT Venturi Racing | +2.043 |
| 16 | 20 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Jaguar Racing | +2.260 |
| 17 | 4 | Robin Frijns | NLD | Envision Virgin Racing | +2.311 |
| 18 | 37 | Nick Cassidy | NZL | Envision Virgin Racing | +2.523 |
| 19 | 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | Mercedes-EQ Formula E | +2.561 |
| 20 | 10 | Sam Bird | GBR | Jaguar Racing | +2.625 |
| 21 | 6 | Nico Muller | CHE | Dragon-Penske Autosport | +2.733 |
| 22 | 11 | Lucas Di Grassi | BRZ | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +2.755 |
| 23 | 17 | Nyck de Vries | NLD | Mercedes-EQ Formula E | +2.564 (Penalty) |
| 24 | 28 | Maximilian Gunther | GER | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +10.125 |
Superpole shootout
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | 27 | Jake Dennis | GBR | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 1.28.548 |
| 2 | 36 | Andre Lotterer | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E | +0.863 |
| 3 | 94 | Alex Lynn | GBR | Mahindra Racing | +1.189 |
| 4 | 88 | Tom Blomqvist | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +1.654 |
| 5 | 8 | Oliver Turvey | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +1.855 |
| 6 | 71 | Norman Nato | FRA | ROKIT Venturi Racing | +1.941 |
