Daniel Abt inherited pole position at Long Beach in a tight qualifying session which saw the top seven separated by less than three tenths of a second.
Buemi (e-Dams) was in the fourth and final group of cars to set times alongside Daniel Abt, theAudi Sport ABT driver recovering from his practice crash to briefly go fastest until Buemi went quicker by less than a tenth. The Swiss driver was later relegated to tenth after he was adjudged to have exceeded its power usage.
As the incident happened during the red flag period, the Swiss driver only lost his fastest time, which dropped him back to 10th. The decision effectivey elevated Daniel Apt into pole position for the first time in his Formula E career. The Audi Sport ABT driver would be be joined on the front row by championship leader Nico Prost.
As the track began to evolve and sesemble a more used counterpart, the times began to tighten considerably. The two Andrettis of Jean-Eric Vergne and Scott Speed held their own in Q1 against Pic, Alguersuari and Heidfeld, but were eventualy beaten by Prost to finish up 6th and 8th.
Putrajaya ePrix winner Sam Bird only managed to qualify 11th , giving him much work to do during the race.
Nelson Piquet Jr was reasonably satisfied with 4th on the grid, but without getting caught out behind Stephane Sarrazin in the final sector in Q3 a pole position was definitely in the offering.
Lucas di Grassi’s best run was less than two tenths off Prost’s which translated to 5th, the Brazilian upstaged by his teammate Abt but at least in touch with his biggest rivals for the race later. There was a brief scare in the pits after the session as smoke came from his car, revealed to be an overheating external starter motor which was replaced.
Long Beach Qualifying