Mortara aces Berlin dash to take third pole of Season 12
- Vyas Ponnuri
- May 2
- 6 min read
Mahindra Racing's Edoardo Mortara became the most successful qualifier around the Berlin Tempelhof venue, taking a record-equalling fourth pole position at the venue, by beating out Pascal Wehrlein in a close final.
Mortara's Mahindra looked the most suited and planted around the Berlin circuit, with the Swiss racer comfortably beating his opponents on his way to a third pole in 2026.
Wehrlein wound up second, with Nissan's Oliver Rowland third and Cupra Kiro's Dan Ticktum in fourth. Citroën's Nick Cassidy will start fifth, with Wehrlein's teammate Nico Müller. Andretti's Felipe Drugovich and Lola's Zane Maloney showcased excellent drives to make it to the duels, starting seventh and eighth respectively.
Madrid winner António Félix da Costa would be the highest of those who didn't get into the duels, starting ninth, ahead of DS Penske's Taylor Barnard.
Group A
Qualifying for Round 7 at Berlin got underway with the first round, featuring big hitters such as championship leader Wehrlein, Mitch Evans, Cassidy and reigning champion Rowland, all of whom were looking for a way into the duels stages.
With the track still being rubbered in, drivers opted to do multiple build and prep laps, before pushing on hard for their flying laps. As such, the early part of the session saw drivers trundling around the Berlin Tempelhof circuit.
Even still, drivers were feeling the effects of the track temperatures, with Envision Racing's Sébastien Buemi radioing to his team about his front right tyre being hotter than the others, due to the anti-clockwise nature of the circuit.
Once the drivers started to set their laps, though, Rowland initially set a 58.8 to kick off proceedings, but he was eclipsed by a mighty lap from Wehrlein's Porsche, a 58.3, in the special Pink Pig-liveried car run by the German team.
Also doing well in the session was rookie Drugovich, who set the second-quickest lap time all session and made his way into the duels stage for the second time in 2026.
However, a scramble at the end saw multiple drivers vying for the two slots alongside the Porsche-powered duo, with Rowland, Cassidy, Barnard, Joel Eriksson, Evans and Citroën's Jean-Éric Vergne all vying for the spots. While Barnard initially pulled out a lap to get into the duels, he was usurped by a charging Rowland, who moved up to third, ahead of Cassidy, securing his spot in the duels.
Among the big names to miss out was Evans, who would start further down the order, while Vergne would face a start from the eighth row of the grid.
Through to duels: Wehrlein, Drugovich, Rowland, Cassidy
Group B
The second group of drivers featured the latest Formula E race winner da Costa, second-placed Mortara, Ticktum and Andretti's Jake Dennis among them.
Having announced his retirement from Formula E at the end of Season 12, Lola's Lucas di Grassi wouldn't finish the 10-minute session, as he broke his suspension when navigating the right-hander of Turn 3. His Lola fishtailed, coming out of the corner, clipping the wall on the outside of the corner, and forcing the Brazilian to come to a stop on the outside of Turn 7.
The session would continue on, with no interruptions as di Grassi pulled off safely. Among the first drivers to set a fast lap were da Costa, who set the bar with a 58.628. This time, however, was first beaten by Porsche's Nico Müller, before di Grassi's teammate Zane Maloney moved into second.
Both drivers, though, would be usurped by the overwhelming pace of Mortara and Ticktum, with the Mahindra man moving up to second, while the Cupra Kiro man topped Group B, setting a 58.337 along the way.
The final moments of qualifying would see only da Costa and Maloney improve their lap times, but the Jaguar man wouldn't make the cut, missing out by 14 milliseconds. The latter, though, was able to improve his lap time, moving up to third in Group B.
da Costa and Dennis were the big names missing out for duels qualifying from Group B.
Through to duels: Ticktum, Mortara, Maloney, Müller
Duels stage
Quarter Finals
The series of duels for Round 7 were set to be an exciting and close affair, with several big hitters looking to secure pole, while Drugovich and Maloney were seeking the best opportunity to add to their points tallies coming into the weekend.
The first of the duels between Nissan man Rowland and Drugovich proved to be one-way traffic. The Andretti man experienced a bout of understeer heading into Turn 2, before further oversteer into Turns 3 and 4 cost him a further four tenths of a second.
Despite his best attempts to claw back time in the final sector, the Brazilian would fall short by half a second, as Rowland made it into the semi finals.
Jarama's pole sitter Cassidy duelled it out with home favourite Wehrlein in the following duel. Despite giving up time to Cassidy through Turns 3 and 4, the Porsche man was able to overturn a 0.15 second deficit with a blistering final sector, acing the triple left-handers to stop the clocks 75 milliseconds ahead of Cassidy.
Maloney faced a tough ask in his first ever duels appearance, against a charging Mortara. Despite his best attempts, the Mahindra man aced it in his quarter final duel, setting a scorching 56.887, the quickest time of the session so far, as he made his way to the semi finals.
The final duel between Müller and Ticktum would once again be a lopsided affair, with the Porsche man chasing time after going deep into Turn 2. Another moment of oversteer onto the main straight later would put paid to his semi final chances, while the Cupra Kiro man appeared much more comfortable, making it through by four tenths of a second.
Through to semi finals: Rowland, Wehrlein, Mortara, Ticktum
Semi finals
The first of the semi finals featured a champion showdown, with reigning champion Rowland up against 2024 champion Wehrlein.
While Wehrlein had bent his steering by 20 degrees after clipping the wall at Turn 4, he was still able to get onto a flying lap.
Although both drivers were initially separated by only a millisecond after the first sector, the German was able to make up more time in this high octane clash, stopping the clocks 0.116s ahead of Rowland to make it to the final.
In the battle of Group B's toppers, Ticktum and Mortara slugged it out, with the latter just edging clear after the first series of corners. The Mahindra man was able to extend his advantage to over three tenths of a second across the lap, making it through to the finals for the third time in four races, setting a 57.002.
Through to final: Wehrlein, Rowland
Final
Mortara faced up against his third different rival in three finals in Season 12, and chased a record fourth pole position in the Berlin Tempelhof circuit.
The Swissman opened up an advantage of over two tenths in the opening corners, leaving Wehrlein with plenty of work to do across the rest of the lap.
However, while the Porsche man was able to narrow the gap down to 0.156s in the rest of the lap, it was not meant to be a home pole.
Mortara managed to grab his third pole of Season 12, and his second for Mahindra at the venue. This also meant he brought home a fourth pole at the venue, tying the record for the most poles at a venue with Wehrlein himself (at Mexico City).
Arguably the class of the field, Mortara's car looked to be the best suited to the traits of the Berlin circuit, breaching the 57-second barrier twice on his laps to take pole, and two valuable championship points to come with it.
Classification - Round 7 (Berlin)
Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing)
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro)
Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing)
Nico Müller (Porsche)
Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT)
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti)
António Félix da Costa (Jaguar)
Taylor Barnard (DS Penske)
Max Günther (DS Penske)
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing)
Jake Dennis (Andretti)
Mitch Evans (Jaguar)
Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro)
Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing)
Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing)
Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing)
Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT)
Norman Nato (Nissan)
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