Sebastien Buemi claimed his first Julius Baer Pole Position of the season in a thrilling qualifying session in Monaco.
Buemi was only third fastest in the group stages as Jean-Eric Vergne and the impressive Maro Engel set the pace.
However, when it really mattered it was Buemi who came to the fore, extending his record number of poles to seven. A brush with the wall meant Engel was only fifth, while Vergne struggled to get heat into the tyres and was only fourth fastest.
“It’s been a long time since we had a pole position. To be honest we couldn’t understand why we were not on the pace. So I’m very happy to convert FP1 pace into a good qualifying,” said Buemi.
His principle title rival – and winner last time out in Mexico – Lucas di Grassi was second fastest, creating a fascinating prospect for the race.
Sebastien Buemi: “I did a good lap, just small mistake in the end, but overall I’m happy to be on the front row”
“Now we have to fight hard in the race, Monaco is hard to overtake but we’ll give it a go,” he said.
Mirroring the same podium finishing order from the Season 1 Monaco race, Nelson Piquet Jr was third fastest for NextEV NIO.
“It’s going to be an exciting race as it’s really close between the three of us – so the first corner going to be so important, as it’s hard to overtake here,” he added.
Felix Rosenqvist was the best of the rest and will line up sixth for Mahindra, just ahead of Jose Maria Lopez. Adam Carroll hit the wall in his Panasonic Jaguar Racing car and starts 18th, Nico Prost went down the escape road in his Renault e.dams entry and was a disappointing 19th, while Jerome D’Ambrosio will line up at the back of the grid after making an error on his flying lap.
Watch @Sebastien_buemi‘s Julius Baer Pole Position lap from the #MonacoePrix pic.twitter.com/zlxrqTFi5H
— FIA Formula E (@FIAformulaE) 13 May 2017
