London E-Prix 2 – A repeat of yesterday’s final and while Nick Cassidy will start on pole once again but this time he’ll have the trophy and the points too.
Group A
Nick Cassidy was the first to emerge from the pits as the final qualifying session of the season got underway and he put in a 1:11.599 to start proceedings. Cassidy and Sam Bird both headed to the pits after only a single fast lap, the Jaguar driver had set the quickest opening time but Sebastien Buemi bettered that on his second effort to go a tenth up with a 1:10.952.
Qualifying Results – 2023 London E-Prix 2
At the halfway point, as most of the cars were heading back to the pits Buemi had reported that there was a bit of rain in the air. At that stage though Buemi and Bird were sharing the duel positions with Dan Ticktum and Rene Rast.
All cars were back circulating in the final few minutes, Cassidy having jumped to the top of the times, two tenths up on Buemi with two minutes still to go. In the end that time was good enough to remain top while our new World Champion, Jake Dennis, waited till the very end to put in a good time and jump into the duels in P2 ahead of Buemi and Bird.
Group B
The Maseratis of Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Guenther were the first out in the second group stage while raindrops were visible on the outside cameras at T16. The Swiss driver brushed the wall on his opening lap, setting a 1:11.783.
As cars started to pit again it was the Nissan of Norman Nato who was sitting at the top of the times with a 1:10.954 while Mitch Evans was a tenth behind in P2 with the other drivers in the provisional progression spots, Mortara and Pascal Wehrlein, were 0.02 and 0.03 seconds off the Jaguar respectively.
After a no quarter given lap for Stoffel Vandoorne he jumped up to P2 but got pushed to P4 as first Evans and then Nico Mueller set 1:10.871 laps. It was a fantastic effort for the ABT Cupra driver but there was still enough time for everyone to cool their tyres before going for a final lap.
Mortara was on a quick lap but seemed to clip the wall and had a bit of traffic at the end which meant he didn’t improve from P5. In the end Evans shaved a bit more time off to set a 1:10.598 while Mueller, Nato and Vandoorne remained in their spots in the top 4. Neither Porsche made it through with Wehrlein missing out by 0.049 seconds.
Quarter-finals – Buemi vs Dennis, Bird vs Cassidy, Nato vs Mueller, Vandoorne vs Evans
The rain started coming down as the group stages ended so the drivers would have to contend with unknown grip and more power during their duels.
QF1 – As the duels got underway it was advantage Buemi with the Envision racer two tenths up in sector one but the new champion halved that in sector two before acing the final corners to win the duel by 0.018 seconds.
QF2 – Cassidy had a slight advantage in the first few corners and extended that to over a tenth and a half in the opening sector and more than double it in the middle portion as Bird made a mistake. The Jaguar driver did manage to close back in at the end but it wasn’t enough to get through.
QF3 – It was all Nato in the opening sector with three tenths over the ABT driver, Mueller picked up his pace in the next portion and was the faster at the end but couldn’t defeat the Nissan driver.
QF4 – The closest duel so far with just a tenth between the two in sector one, Evans pulled the slightest bit more of a gap to Vandoorne in the second sector but it ended with over two tenths between them as the Kiwi continued on his way to try make it to the final and pole again today.
Semi-finals – Dennis vs Cassidy, Nato vs Evans
SF1 – Dennis looked the faster in the opening corners but Cassidy just had it over the whole sector one, 0.020 seconds between them and it remained with nothing in it over the next part but
SF2 – There was nearly as much between Evans and Nato in the opening sector as there was over the course of the whole of the first duel, the Jaguar driver was mighty in the second sector to extend that gap and in the end there was half a second between the two despite the fact that Nato’s time would’ve won the first semi-final.
Final – Cassidy vs Evans
A repeat of yesterday’s final but this time there aren’t any grid penalties hanging over either of them but with Envision and Jaguar on equal points at the top of the Teams’ Championship, this is a great chance for one of them to move ahead.
There was seven hundredths between the two at the start, Evans with the advantage however Cassidy flipped it to a 0.036 gap in his favour and while the Jaguar driver did close in again at the end it was the bright green Envision car that took the victory, defeating his fellow Kiwi by 0.01 of a second.
Nato will start alongside Dennis on row two while Vandoorne and Bird are set to share the third row. Buemi will be in P7 ahead of Mueller while Ticktum and Wehrlein round out the top ten.
