Maximilian Gunther of Maserati MSG Racing took his maiden pole position ahead of Jake Dennis in the Avalanche Andretti Formula E for race one of the Jakarta ePrix, the double-header on Saturday morning. The German driver set a time of 1:08:141 and had a comfortable gap over Dennis, whose best effort was three-tenths slower than Gunther’s.
However, the big loser in qualifying was championship leader Nick Cassidy who crashed out in the first session finishing fifth in his group and will now start tenth in the race later in the afternoon.
Gunther topped the first part of qualifying and breezed past his teammate Edoardo Mortara in the quarterfinals of the duel format with a comfortable gap of three-tenths of a second. He defeated Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein by nearly four-tenths of a second in the semifinals.
The Maserati driver kept improving his lap time and was on song throughout the session. Wehrlein, who is second in the championship, 20 points adrift of the leader, will line up third, while Jean-Eric Vergne will start fourth. Wehrlein will look to make the most of the opportunity in the first race, especially with his chief rival Cassidy down in tenth to bridge the gap in the title race.
The Mahindra drivers, though, had a forgettable outing with Lucas di Grassi and debutant Roberto Merhi set to start 21st and 22nd after they finished at the bottom of their respective groups in the first part of qualifying. Merhi replaced Oliver Rowland ahead of this weekend’s race in Jakarta after the British driver and the team ended their association by a mutual agreement.
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