Virgin's Bird flies in Marrakesh - secures ePrix super pole!

Virgin Racing's Sam Bird took flight in Marrakesh on Saturday, pipping DS Techeetah's Jean-Eric Vergne to pole position for today's ABB FIA Formula E race by just 0.046 seconds.

It was hardly a straightforward session for Bird however who found himself on the receiving end of a bizarre pitlane incident.

While everyone was winding down after the third group session, NIO's Tom Dillman rammed the back of Robin Frijns who in turn was pushed into Bird's car, damaging the Virgin racer's diffuser.

Bird was forced to deal with the issue as a repair job could not be conducted by his crew under parc Fermé rules. Undeterred, the Brit put in stunning effort to beat Vergne to pole by the closest margin.

The reigning Formula E champion will start this afternoon's race at the Circuit Moulay El Hassan on the front row, followed by series leader Antonio Felix da Costa.

However, the BMW i Andretti driver is under investigation for exceeding his 200kW allocation during the group running.

Behind the Portuguese charger, DAMS Sebastian Buemi, Andretti's Alexander Sims and Jaguar's Mitch Evans rounded off the Super Pole top-six.

While missing the super pole cut, Pascal Wehrlein's first Formula E qualifying put the former F1 driver impressive P7 with Mahindra, the German edging Frijns, Nelson Piquet and team mate Jérôme d'Ambrosio.