Reigning Champion Wehrlein takes pole for opening round race in Sao Paulo

Credit: Simon Galloway

Formula E reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein takes pole for the 2024/25 Sao Paulo E-Prix in a stunning effort to pick up from where he left off in the previous season.

Wehrlein delivered the lap after beating Nissan's Oliver Rowland, who had been showing consistent speed throughout the two practice sessions, and was able to replicate the speed throughout qualifying.

Wehrlein would beat fellow German driver Maximilian Gunther in the semi final whereas Rowland would beat fellow Brit Jake Dennis of Andretti - who topped the day's earlier FP2.

It would be a qualifying session that would take place not long before the very first race of the season. It will be the second E-Prix in succession at the Sao Paulo street circuit, that will see Wehrlein start from pole position.

Group A

It would be time for qualifying in Sao Paulo to get underway and the 22 drivers had been split into two groups for the first stage of the qualifying knockout format that Formula E uses to determine the grid for each E-Prix.

First up would be group A, which would consist of:

• Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske)
• David Beckmann (Kiro Race)
• Sam Bird (NEOM McLaren)
• Lucas Di Grassi (ABT Lola Cars)
• Antonio Felix Da Costa (Porsche)
• Sebastian Buemi (Envision)
• Nyck De Vries (Mahindra)
• Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
• Jake Dennis (Andretti)
• Nick Cassidy (Jaguar)
• Jake Hughes (Great Britain)

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and that would signify the start of the Formula E qualifying session as all of the drivers would head out to set their banker lap times. With the first laps, NEOM McLaren's Bird would go top with a competitive lap time. Di Grassi, Rowland and Da Costa would be the top four.

David Beckmann on his Formula E debut would also have a spell in the top four as the times were improving all the time and the positions were changing as the track was constantly evolving.

​By the end of the session, in a tightly fought group it would be Jake Dennis who would continue the fine form and he would progress through to the quarter final 1v1 duels.

Joining him in the quarter finals would be Porsche's Antonio Felix Da Costa, Nissan's Oliver Rowland and Jean-Eric Vergne of DS Penske. The other seven would be eliminated with the attention turning to Group B.

Group B

It would be then time for Group B which would see the other 11 drivers complete for the top four places to put themselves through to the first 1v1 duels of the season.

Group B would consist of:

• Maximilian Gunther (DS Penske)
• Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
• Mitch Evans (Jaguar)
• Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati)
• Nico Mueller (Andretti)
• Norman Nato (Nissan)
• Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren)
• Zane Maloney (ABT Lola Cars)
• Robin Frijns (Envision Racing)
• Dan Ticktum (Kiro Race)
• Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra)

The green light would be back on at the end of the pit lane, as the drivers piled out onto the circuit to go and try and set some lap times and to get themselves through to the quarter finals.

However, not the session to be for Mitch Evans, as a reoccurring issue for Mitch Evans from free practice 1, saw him come to a stop on circuit. A nightmare for the Jaguar racer and the New Zealander would be out of qualifying.

The session would be back underway and a huge lap from Wehrlein would see him fly to the top of times with a 1:11.717 with Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara up to seventh overall. Nato and Ticktum had possession of the top four places as the clock continued to tick down.

At the end of the group, it would be Wehrlein top of the board with a fantastic effort. He took pole around the Sao Paulo street circuit last season and looked a contender once again.

Gunther, Nato, Mortara and Wehrlein would progress with the other seven in the group eliminated.

1v1 duels

Time for the quarter final 1v1 duels. These eight drivers will battle in the quarter finals, 1v1. The winner will progress through to the semi final, with the two winners of the semi finals competing in the final. The fastest driver in the final would take pole position for the E-Prix.

The quarter finals would be as follows:

• Oliver Rowland (Nissan) vs Antonio Felix Da Costa (Porsche)
• Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) vs Jake Dennis (Andretti)
• Maximilian Gunther (DS Penske) vs Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra)
• Norman Nato (Nissan) vs Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)

First up would be the quarter final between Rowland and Da Costa, two drivers who won races in the previous season and both finished in the top six of last season's standings. Oliver Rowland would be the driver to progress though and he would just progress by 0.060 against Da Costa. An incredible effort from Rowland.

Second up in the quarter finals would be Vergne and Dennis going head to head for a place in the semi finals. An incredible lap from Dennis saw him beat Vergne by half a second and break into the 1m09s.

They would be the turn of Maximilian Gunther who would be competing against Edoardo Mortara. Gunther would get through into the semi finals and would out-qualify Vergne, his DS Penske teammate, in his first race with the team.

Last but not least Wehrlein would be the last driver to take the final semi final spot. The reigning champion would beat the Nissan of Norman Nato, who lost out despite having the edge in the first sector.

This would mean Wehrlein, Gunther, Dennis and Rowland would be the four drivers of the first semi finals of the season. The duels would be as follows: 

• Oliver Rowland (Nissan) vs Jake Dennis (Andretti)
• Maximilian Gunther (DS Penske) vs Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)

In the first semi final it would be the battle of the Brits between Rowland and Jake Dennis and it would be as close as you could imagine as Rowland would progress by 0.001! Incredibly tight as the Nissan driver was through to the final!

As for the battle in the second semi final between the two German drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Gunther, it would be an affair which would see reigning champion Wehrlein to progress through to the final - in an attempt to get his second consecutive pole in Sao Paulo.

In the final, it would be the reigning champion to come out on top as he beat the Nissan of Oliver Rowland. Therefore, Wehrlein would start on pole for the opening round in Brazil.

2024 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: Round 1 - Sao Paulo E-Prix starting grid

1. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany, Porsche)
2. Oliver Rowland (Great Britain, Nissan)
3. Jake Dennis (Great Britain, Andretti)
4. Maximilian Gunther (Germany, DS Penske)
5. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Portugal, Porsche)
6. Norman Nato (France, Nissan)
7. Edoardo Mortara (Switzerland, Mahindra)
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, DS Penske)
9. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, Maserati)
10. Nick Cassidy (New Zealand, Jaguar)
11. Dan Ticktum (Great Britain, Kiro Race)
12. Sebastian Buemi (Switzerland, Envision Racing)
13. Robin Frijns (Netherlands, Envision Racing)
14. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil, ABT Lola Cars)
15. Nico Mueller (Switzerland, Andretti)
16. Sam Bird (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
17. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
18. Jake Hughes (Great Britain, Maserati)
19. Zane Maloney (Barbados, ABT Lola Cars)
20. David Beckmann (Germany, Kiro Race)
21. Nyck De Vries (Netherlands, Mahindra)
22. Mitch Evans (New Zealand, Jaguar)