de Vries takes dominant pole for Mercedes in Diriyah Formula E season-opener

Nyck de Vries stormed to his first Formula E pole position as he dominated qualifying for the Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia.

de Vries has been the man to beat this weekend having topped every session on the run-up to super pole

The Mercedes driver smashed Pascal Wehrlein’s provisional pole time by over six-tenths as he set a 1m08.157s.

NYCKKKKKKKK Kicking off the 2021 season in style with his maiden @FIAFormulaE pole for @MercedesEQFE! pic.twitter.com/TKrcZxcXv7

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 26, 2021

Wehrlein made his return to Formula E after a year out and edged out Audi’s René Rast for second place.

A mistake in the first sector cost Edoardo Mortara a shot at the front row, ending super Pole in fourth place for Venturi Racing.

Alex Lynn and Mitch Evans completed the top six but the pair were drafted into super Pole last minute.

Nick Cassidy and Nico Müller made it into super pole initially but had their best laps deleted for setting their times under yellow flags in the final qualifying group.

Sérgio Sette Câmara crashed at the final corner, ruining Cassidy, Müller and Blomqvist’s laps in the process.

Andre Lotterer will start from seventh ahead of Sam Bird in the Briton’s first race for Jaguar Racing.

Maximilian Günther is set to start from ninth ahead of Oliver Rowland, who was the lead driver to have qualified from group one

Track evolution and cooler track temperatures meant any driver competing in the earlier groups were at a severe disadvantage.

Reigning Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa could only manage 18th, just ahead of DS Techeetah teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Robin Frijns was unable to take part in qualifying and thus will start last after crashing in the earlier practice session.

Envision Virgin Racing had hoped to get Frijns back out in time for qualifying but his car required a battery change.