Hughes takes pole as both finalists penalised

Monaco E-Prix – McLaren’s Jake Hughes will start on pole in Monaco after he and Sacha Fenestraz had their times cancelled.

In the final duel Hughes initially had the advantage but got out of shape on the run down to the Nouvelle Chicane and had to cut the corner, which lost him time and allowed Fenestraz to take the pole.

While the pole trophy presentation was happening Fenestraz was informed that he was under investigation for a technical infraction and the stewards later cancelled his lap time as he’d used more than the maximum of 350kW during his lap.

Things got confusing then as a couple of minutes later Hughes’ lap was also cancelled given he left the track limits while bailing out at the chicane. The question was then who would get the pole?

Half an hour later the final qualifying classification was released which put Hughes in pole ahead of Fenestraz.

Maximilian Guenther in P4 had also been under investigation, his one for a driving infringement, due to a confusion with Sergio Sette Camara at the start of the quarter-finals where he and NIO 333 lined up at the wrong set of lights in the pit lane which meant they were red when Guenther headed out for his duel.

Sette Camara’s quarter-final time was deleted as a result, that allowed Guenther to progress to the semi-finals instead and the stewards acknowledged the issue and handed the Maserati driver a suspended three place grid drop (only to be served if he is investigated for the same infringement again this season).

As a result of the pole change, that means that the Group B drivers will now take the odd positions outside the top 8 instead of the Group A drivers so the provisional starting grid now look like this:

1. Jake Hughes Neom McLaren
2. Sacha Fenestraz Nissan 
3. Norman Nato Nissan -1:29.236
4. Maximilian Guenther Maserati MSG Racing -1:29.450
5. Dan Ticktum NIO 333 -1:29.326
6. Mitch Evans Jaguar TCS Racing -1:29.350
7. Edoardo Mortara Maserati MSG Racing -1:29.484
8. Sergio Sette Camara NIO 333
9. Nick Cassidy Envision Racing
10. Andre Lotterer Avalanche Andretti
11. Jake Dennis Avalanche Andretti
12. Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche
13. Oliver Rowland Mahindra Racing
14. Rene Rast Neom McLaren
15. Sebastien Buemi Envision Racing
16. Sam Bird Jaguar TCS Racing
17. Nico Mueller ABT Cupra
18. Robin Frijns ABT Cupra
19. Antonio Felix da Costa TAG Heuer Porsche
20. Lucas di Grassi Mahindra Racing
21. Stoffel Vandoorne DS Penske
22. Jean-Eric Vergne DS Penske