De Vries beats Mortara by 0.005s to secure pole for second Diriyah E-Prix

Reigning Formula E champion Nyck de Vries beat Edoardo Mortara by just 0.005s in qualifying to secure pole position for the second Diriyah E-Prix. 

De Vries was unstoppable through the early phases of qualifying, topping Group A before dominating Jean-Eric Vergne and Lucas di Grassi in the knock-out phase.

In the final, De Vries held a significant 0.3s advantage over Mortara in the first sector but dropped off as the lap progressed.

It was still enough for the Dutchman as he eclipsed Mortara to secure pole position in Saudi Arabia.

After winning the season-opener on Saturday, it’s a great start to the season for de Vries as he extended his lead in the championship. 

Mortara will be confident of challenging for the victory after both Venturis showed great race pace in race one.

Venturi teammate di Grassi will start fourth, just behind Robin Frijns. 

Frijns beat Oliver Rowland in the quarter-finals but lost out to Mortara.

Completing the top eight in qualifying Andre Lotterer, Vergne, Oliver Rowland and Antonio Felix da Costa. 

Rowland will start the race from 10th after picking up a three-pace grid penalty yesterday, while da Costa was annoyed with his qualifying after a mix-up in the first knock-out phase.

Da Costa missed the first green light meaning he wait and went out when it re-appeared - which was for di Grassi. 

With di Grassi forced to remain in the pit lane, da Costa set an unrepresentative lap as the team thought he was safely through to the next phase.

However, di Grassi was allowed out again and progressed into the semis.

Outside of the top 10 behind Rowland was Pascal Wehrlein    and Stoffel Vandoorne.

Vandoorne struggled on his final lap in group qualifying and has his work cut out to recover from 12th on the grid.

Both Jaguars hit the wall in qualifying with Mitch Evans in 16th and Sam Bird down in 21st.

Click here for the full FIA Formula E results from qualifying for the second Diriyah E-Prix