Reigning champion da Costa takes Julius Baer Pole Position for the Monaco E-Prix

DS TECHEETAH's Antonio Felix da Costa will start the 2021 Monaco E-Prix from Julius Baer Pole Position - his second of the season - pipping Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) and Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans, with the top four split by just 0.059 seconds.

Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH) threaded his way to Julius Baer Pole Position with a storming 1m31.317s, pipping Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) and Jaguar Racing driver Mitch Evans in an ultra-close session.

Da Costa followed DS teammate and Season 5 Monaco E-Prix winner Jean-Eric Vergne on-track, and went quicker than the Frenchman's impressive early benchmark by 0.029 seconds - scything his way through Monte Carlo's famous streets and fastest of all in Sectors 1 and 2.

Frijns felt like he left nothing on the table, and a tidy effort wasn't quite enough for pole but at just a hundreth shy of da Costa's time, he's shown he'll mix it with the reigning champion come the E-Prix at 16:00 CEST.

Mitch Evans (Jaguar Racing) came into qualifying off the back of earning FP2’s fastest time. He hung it all out with a mega lap for third, 0.051 seconds shy of pole.

Vergne started on pole on the short circuit here in Season 5 following Oliver Rowland’s penalty, and the Frenchman had set the early pace as the second driver on track in Super Pole. Precision yielded provisional pole, almost 0.2 seconds up on prior provisonal polesitter Rowland.

Maximilian Guenther (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) was next up, for his third Super Pole appearance of the season – joint-most of any driver. The German had plenty on his plate, wrestling his BMW iFE.21 to a scrappy-looking fifth.

Nissan e.dams Rowland was first to run and threw a really strong-looking lap together, hustling over the kerbs and using every inch of road to steer to a 1m31.547s. The Brit left the pit-lane under a red light, though, and had his time cancelled – leaving him sixth.

Down the order

Standings leader Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ) accidentally tripped his car out of 250kW mode at the chicane during his flyer, leaving him 1.4 seconds off Frijns Group Qualifying benchmark and marooned down in 23rd on the grid for Round 7.

“At the chicane, it’s quite bumpy. You do it with one hand, and the other hangs in the cockpit and I accidentally hit the switch. It takes 30 seconds to get it back so I did half the lap without 250kW. It’ll require a software update – a relatively easy fix, but it never happened before."

Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne finds himself 15th and third in the standings Sam Bird (Jaguar Racing) will be disappointed with 16th having set the pace in Free Practice 1.

Sergio Sette Camara (DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT) is always dancing right on the limit and what looked like a quick lap ended with a crunch as he lost the rear of his car into the final turn at Anthony Noghes – the Brazilian visibly frustrated with himself and left wondering where the spin came from.

The Monaco E-Prix Round 7 gets underway from 16:00 CEST, for Formula E's first race on the full, historic layout at perhaps the most famous race circuit in the world.

Published on 8th May 2021

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