Dennis takes pole after all-Andretti final in Sanya E-Prix qualifying
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 2 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Jake Dennis took pole position for the Sanya E-Prix, after a thrilling lap in the final stage of qualifying saw him claim pole position over teammate Felipe Drugovich in Sanya. The lap was eventually decided by Drugovich's first sector, with the gap only growing for the Briton from there on.
The losing semi finalists, ,Mitch Evans and Dan Ticktum will start third and fourth, ahead of Nyck de Vries in fifth, with the top eight rounded out by Pascal Wehrlein, Nick Cassidy and Sébastien Buemi rounding out the top eight.
DS Penske's Taylor Barnard would have originally qualified fifth, but a 10-place grid drop puts him down to 15th on the road. As a result, the likes of xxx and yyy starting ninth and 10th.
AS IT UNFOLDED - Qualifying for the Sanya E-Prix
Group A
Kicking off qualifying was Group A, which featured the likes of championship leader Mitch Evans, Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara, Porsche's Nico Müller and two drivers who have been super quick in qualifying - Felipe Drugovich and Taylor Barnard.
Drivers once again attempted to set two build laps, being reminded by their teams to maintain temperature in their tyres.
A big shock during the qualifying session was FP1 topper Mortara unable to match his practices pace into qualifying, as he eventually rounded the session sixth, behind fellow Swissman Sébastien Buemi.
A stunning 1:07.337 from Drugovich put him atop the timesheets, the Brazilian carrying on his Monaco form into Sanya. Barnard emerged as the second quickest in the group, although it is important to note that the Briton carries a 10-place grid drop going into this weekend.
Evans and Cassidy put themselves in the box seat for pole, making it through to the duels ahead of a distraught Pepe Martí and Müller.
Through to duels: Felipe Drugovich, Taylor Barnard, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy
Group B
A rare occurrence saw Group A and Group B have 10 different manufacturers feature in each of the group qualifying sessions. Group B would see big hitters such as Pascal Wehrlein, Monaco winner Oliver Rowland, and 2019 Sanya winner Jean-Éric Vergne.
With drivers once again looking to do two build laps, feedback from the Group A sessions would be essential towards nailing this session.
Wehrlein quickly set the benchmark at a 1:07.516, a strong first lap, with Jake Dennis, Nyck de Vries and Vergne slotting into the top four after the first few laps. Joel Eriksson then put himself into the top four for Envision Racing.
All eyes would be on Monaco pole-sitter Dan Ticktum, to see how he got along for Cupra Kiro. The Briton put himself as the closest man to Wehrlein on top, with a 1:07.576.
Jaguar's António Félix da Costa only put himself eighth, as Wehrlein lowered his benchmark by 20 milliseconds with the session ticking down to its final minutes.
The German would pull into the pits, abandoning his final lap. As the drivers wound up for their final flying laps, a yellow flag would be flown for the stranded Zane Maloney at Turn 4. The Lola man clipped the wall coming out of Turn 3, damaging his suspension.
No driver would ultimately topple the top four, with de Vries the only one to climb from fourth to second in the group. The likes of da Costa and Rowland would miss out, finishing only sixth and seventh during the session.
Through to duels: Pascal Wehrlein, Nyck de Vries, Dan Ticktum, Jake Dennis
Duels Stage
Quarter finals
The first of the quarter finals would see Evans take on Barnard's DS Penske. The Jaguar man would be chasing a first pole of the season, as Barnard looked to negate the damage to his grid slot this weekend.
Despite remaining an outlier in the session, Barnard quickly opened up an advantage of five hundredths of a second, with a lap time of 1:05.652.
However, a poorer second sector saw the DS Penske man fall short, the margin going 69 milliseconds to Evans' favour. Barnard attempted to close down the gap, but failed to make it through by the barest of margins, falling just one millisecond short, a typical moment of Formula E's duels stages.
The second duel would see Cassidy face off against Drugovich for a spot in the duels. The Brazilian would immediately open up a two-tenth gap at the end of the twisty first sector, only opening up his advantage as the lap went on.
A steady final sector would see Drugovich end up at a 1:05.571, almost four tenths clear of his Citroën rival, and punching his ticket through to the semi finals.
It was a re-run of the Monaco Round 9 final, as Ticktum faced off against de Vries in the third duel of the weekend. Ticktum had an advantage of almost a tenth of a second after two sectors, with the Dutchman playing catch up instead.
He would be unsuccessful, despite improving in the final sector, and missing out by only 44 milliseconds, putting himself towards the lower half of the top 10.
A massive duel between Wehrlein and Dennis would be the feature of the session, with both heavyweights facing off in Sanya for a spot in the semi finals. In this battle between the Porsche powertrain machines, it was all to play for.
The gap ebbed and flowed going into the second sector, however, a mistake from Wehrlein into Turn 9 saw the gap open up to three tenths of a second. Dennis eventually stopped the clock at a 1:05.621, a full four tenths ahead of the Porsche man, despite clipping the wall at Turn 11 on his lap.
Through to semi finals: Evans, Drugovich, Ticktum, Dennis
Semi finals
With two Andrettis in either semi final, the stage was potentially set up for both of them to even make the final. However, they would face a stern challenge from the Jaguar of Evans and a high flying Ticktum.
The first of the duels between Evans and Drugovich proved to be an exciting one. The Andretti driver carried plenty of confidence into the first sector, earning himself an early advantage and building on it into the second sector. Evans set a 1:05.632, however, the Brazilian kept it composed heading to the line, emerging 25 milliseconds ahead of his rival and booking his spot into the final.
An all-Brit second semi final between Ticktum and Dennis would seal the second finalist. Once again, two Porsche-powered cars. Despite sitting in the fight, a moment of going deep into Turn 9 would put an end to the Cupra Kiro man's chances of going into a final.
With Dennis making it into the final, it became an all-Andretti affair to decide pole position around the Sanya street circuit.
Through to final: Drugovich, Dennis
Final
An exciting final would see the two teammates face off for pole. Neither driver had topped the qualifying sessions in 2026, although Dennis had started from pole in São Paulo after Wehrlein's grid drop. Drugovich had yet to start from pole in his Formula E career.
As the drivers made their way along the flying laps, the ever-consistent Drugovich appeared to have dropped time at Turns 4 and 5. The impact was evident, with Dennis opening a four-tenth gap, with the lap effectively decided at this point of the circuit.
Dennis had built up the gap to over a second, taking his first pole of Season 12, and claiming three valuable points for Andretti. Gutting for Drugovich, but ecstasy for Dennis, who redeemed himself after a tough Monaco weekend.
Classification - Sanya E-Prix qualifying
Jake Dennis (Andretti)
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti)
Mitch Evans (Jaguar)
Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro)
Taylor Barnard (DS Penske)*
Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing)
Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing)
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing)
Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing)
Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing)
António Félix da Costa (Jaguar)
Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro)*
Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing)
Nico Müller (Porsche)
Max Günther (DS Penske)*
Norman Nato (Nissan)
Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT)
Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT)*
*penalties carried over into qualifying
