12/07/2025 12:41
Mitch Evans mastered tricky wet conditions to secure pole position
for the opening race of Formula E's Berlin E-Prix. Qualifying only
featured the group stage, due to a delay ahead of the session. As a
result, it was a battle of who could set the quickest overall lap
time. That honour went to Evans, who is joined on the front row by
Envision's Robin Frijns. Oliver Rowland starts in third, ahead of
Maserati's Jake Hughes. Rowland enters the first race of the
weekend with a 69-point lead, and will secure the title should his
advantage increase to 87 points or more. How the session unfolded
Following a 40-minute delay due to substantial standing water, it
was decided by the FIA that only the group stage of qualifying
would take place. It meant the quickest driver across either group
would secure pole position, with the group that driver was in
occupying the odd side of the grid. The first group featured
championship leader Oliver Rowland, as well as Porsche's Antonio
Felix da Costa. In extremely tricky conditions, lap times improved
with each circulation of the Tempelhof Airport circuit. By the end
of the first group, Mitch Evans was quickest on a 1m 11.021. The
Jaguar driver was a staggering one-second quicker than Rowland in
second, ahead of Maximilian Günther in third. It was all eyes on
the second group to see if Evans' time could be beaten. Only 10
drivers took to the track for group B, as Sebastien Buemi did not
take to the track due to work on his car – he has a 40-place grid
penalty following a gearbox change. Whilst the lap times got close
to Evans' time in the final seconds of group B, no driver managed
to topple his lap time. Robin Frijns came closest on a 1m 11.109,
but had to settle for second on the grid. Pascal Wehrlein was third
in group B, but will start from ninth due to a three-place grid
penalty.
