At the Berlin E-Prix, Edoardo Mortara achieved something special by clinching the pole position. His time of 1 minute and 1.741 seconds was the fastest in the entire qualifying session. This win marked his and Mahindra’s first points of the season after facing many challenges.
In his final duel, Mortara was slightly faster than Stoffel Vandoorne by 0.011 seconds in the opening sector. However, Vandoorne faced difficulties exiting Turn 7, costing him two-tenths of a second. Eventually, Mortara secured the pole position with a lead of 0.267 seconds over Vandoorne.
This victory was particularly significant for Mortara as he had last taken pole position two years ago, also at the Tempelhof Airport circuit in Berlin but on a different layout.
During the semi-final duels, Vandoorne managed to beat Sergio Sette Camara from ERT by 0.167 seconds. Meanwhile, Mortara triumphed over Jean-Eric Vergne from DS Penske by a tenth of a second, despite a slightly slower start.
Pascal Wehrlein, the championship leader from Porsche, lost to Vergne by a very narrow margin of only 0.082 seconds. Vandoorne progressed by defeating Maximilian Guenther from Maserati MSG by more than two-tenths of a second.
Jehan Daruvala from Maserati, who faced a 20-place grid penalty due to gearbox replacement, also fell short against Mortara by more than two-tenths of a second.
During the group qualifying session, Mortara emerged on top with a time of 1 minute and 2.619 seconds, despite brushing the wall at the final corner. He was joined in the duels by Wehrlein, Vergne, and Daruvala.
Unfortunately, drivers like Antonio Felix da Costa from Porsche and Mitch Evans from Jaguar failed to progress. Joel Eriksson, filling in for Robin Frijns at Envision, finished 10th, just ahead of reigning champion Jake Dennis.
It was a tough session for the Andretti team as both Dennis and Norman Nato finished at the bottom of their respective groups. Lucas di Grassi topped his group, followed by Guenther, Vandoorne, and Sette Camara.
Nick Cassidy, a championship contender, missed advancing by a narrow margin of 0.079 seconds. Other notable eliminations included Kelvin van der Linde from Abt and Taylor Barnard, substituting for the injured Sam Bird. Oliver Rowland from Nissan secured eighth place, while Paul Aron, making his Formula E debut, finished 10th for Envision.
