F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Vandoorne secures maiden Formula E pole in Hong Kong

Former McLaren F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne will start from pole position in today's ABB FIA Formula E Hong Kong ePrix race.

It's the Belgian driver's first pole start in the all-electric championship since he switched for Formula E over the winter. It's also HWA's first pole as a team.

Vandoorne set the top time in wet conditions in qualifying on Sunday. he was quickest in his group stage and was then the last of six drivers to go out in superpole.

His time of 1:11.580s was over three tenths faster than the next best man, Nissan e.dams' Oliver Rowland who has been fastest in the opening practice session at the start of the day.

Rowland had almost a second's advantage over Techeetah's Andre Lotterer, with Vandoorne's team mate Gary Paffett securing fourth place on the grid ahead of Audi's Lucas di Grassi and Venturi's Edoardo Mortara.

Motara had originally qualified in third place, but subsequently received a three-place grid penalty for speeding under a red flag earlier in qualifying which had been caused by reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne.

Virgin's Sam Bird just missed out on superpole despite coming second in the tricky opening group behind di Grassi. He'll start the race from seventh place just ahead of Nissan's Sébastien Buemi and Venturi's Felipe Massa.

Bird's team mate Robin Frijns rounds out the top ten on the grid, having been the pace setter in second practice.

Vergne's accident during Group 2 - which saw him lose the back end of the Techeetah and colliding with the wall at the end of his first lap - will start from 18th place after his best times were deleted for causing a red flag.

The showery conditions in Hong Kong that had plagued the drivers all morning through the earlier practice sessions also caught out Andretti's Antonio Felix da Costa and Mahindra pair Pascal Wehrlein and Jerome d'Ambrosio who start from the back of the grid.

The 50th ePrix gets underway in Hong Kong at 4pm local time, or 8am GMT, with drier conditions expected for the green flag.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

3 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

4 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

5 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

6 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

8 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

9 hours ago