McLaren’s Jake Hughes will start the Monaco e-Prix on pole position following Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz’s disqualification from the final duel, after using more than the permitted 350kw of power.
Fenestraz thought he claimed his second pole position of the season, with the session seeing multiple drivers lose their lap times for technical and driving infringements.
During Group A, at the start of the session, DS Penske was placed under investigation for a technical infraction with both Jean-Éric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne sitting first and second on the leaderboard, with race control cancelling their lap times after their group finished, leaving both drivers starting the race from the back of the grid.
Sam Bird had a disappointing session, sitting bottom of the timesheets at the halfway point, but it was good day for Nissan as both their drivers progressed to the qualifying duels. Norman Nato topping group A, with Sacha Fenestraz in third.
Nio 333 will also have a driver in the qualifying duels as Dan Ticktum ended Group A in fourth place, with Mitch Evans just ahead of him in the Jaguar TCS car.
While getting Ticktum through to the duels was a massive achievement for Nio, their attention had to turn to Sérgio Sette Câmara, who was under investigation for a technical infraction, similar to what DS Penske had faced. Envision’s Sébastien Buemi was also investigated. Oliver Rowland’s name was added to that list at the end of the session with his Mahrindra under investigation as well.
After the opening runs of Group B, Maximilian Günther was top of the timesheets in his Maserati MSG, ahead of Envision’s Nick Cassidy.
With two minutes to go, it was a 1-2 for the Maserati team in their home race, but Jake Hughes sandwiched between them in his McLaren after a strong lap.
Günther was the fastest in the session, Hughes was second fastest, with Mortara in third. Sette Camara progressed to the duels but was under investigation which had to be dealt with before the duels could happen, with three of his lap times being deleted, however, this didn’t include his fastest lap and therefore still progressed to the duels. Buemi’s first
The first duel was between Ticktum and Fenerstraz and it was the Nissan driver who claimed a place in the semi-finals by 0.295 seconds, meaning he would start inside the top four at the very least.
Evans and Nato would duel it out in the second quarter-final and Nato set up an all-Nissan semi-final one, with at least one of their cars starting on the front row. His lap time was 0.237 seconds fastest than what Evans could achieve.
Hughes would face Mortara in the third quarter-final duel, with the home crowd backing the Maserati driver. However, it was the McLaren driver of Hughes that went +0.402 seconds faster than Mortara, giving him a shot at claiming a place on the front-row.
Sette Camara faced Günther in the final quarter-final and after a really strong lap, he went 0.363 seconds faster. However, he was under investigation once again, this time for a qualifying procedure which appeared to be down to leaving the pitlane at the wrong time. Replays showed Günther going through a red light before stopping, down to Sette Camara waiting at the wrong line at the end of the pitlane. After a delay before the semi-final duels, it was announced that Sette Camara’s best lap time was cancelled and therefore Günther made it to the semi-final.
The Semi-final one was the all-Nissan battle between Nato and Fenestraz 0.141 seconds between the pair in the first sector but Fenestraz nailed the second and third sectors to pull a gap of 0.463 seconds and become the first driver into the 1 minutes 28 second laps this weekend, the fastest lap of a Formula E car in Monaco.
Günther got a second bite of the cherry after being given a lifeline through the disqualification of Sette Camara. However, McLaren’s Hughes had too much for the German driver, beating him by 0.508 seconds but Günther was placed under investigation for a driving infringement after the session.
The final would be between Hughes and Fenestraz, and Guhes had the narrow lead but Hughes went straight on at the chicane leaving the tunnel and handed the victory to Fenestraz, his second pole position of the season.
However, the news was broke to him during his post-race interview that he was also under investigation for A technical infringement.