Mitch Evans claimed a second consecutive pole at the London E-Prix after edging out Nyck de Vries in a tight qualifying finale. While Jaguar TCS Racing celebrated the front row, newly crowned champion Oliver Rowland was among several big names to fall early in a group stage. Who else surprised in The 2025 Marvel Fantastic Four London E-Prix qualifying?
Group stage
Group A: surprising elimination and fastest driver
Group A featured the new Formula E World Champion Rowland, alongside his teammate Nato, both NEOM McLaren drivers, and a line-up including Cassidy, Ticktum, Günther, Buemi, Müller, Maloney, and FP2 pace-setter de Vries.
Cassidy laid down the early benchmark while Rowland opted for a late start to find clean air. De Vries and Mahindra played a bold strategy — pitting early and only returning to the track with three minutes left. The risk paid off, as the Dutchman jumped to P3 on his final lap.
Cassidy, Günther, de Vries, and Ticktum progressed to the duels. Meanwhile, Rowland and Barnard were surprise eliminations. McLaren’s underwhelming form was parly explained by Bird‘s radio, complaining about his car controls no working properly.
Not even a good luck kiss was enough to help the new champion in the group stage.
Group B: Maserati through
In Group B, attention turned to Evans, aiming to mirror his teammate’s success. Mortara set the initial target time (1:08.968), with Wehrlein, Evans, and Vergne close behind.
The final laps saw both Maserati MSG Racing drivers lock in impressive performances, ending P3 and P4. With their times, they joined Wehrlein and Evans in the duels. Di Grassi, meanwhile, again found himself at the back of the pack in P11.
Duels stage
Quarterfinals
- QF1: De Vries vs. Günther
Günther started strong but overcommitted in the final sector. De Vries had a much cleaner lap and it helped him win the duel. - QF2: Ticktum vs. Cassidy
Despite predictions favouring Cassidy for the win, Ticktum showed determination from the start. It was a tight duel but the Cupra Kiro driver crossed the finish line victorious. Cassidy later explained the gap by his tyres being cold, seemingly very upset with how the team handled the duel. - QF3: Hughes vs. Evans
Evans led from the start, maintaining the upper hand despite some time loss in the middle sector. The predictions favoured him and they were correct at the end. As opposed to his teammate, Evans won his duel to proceed further. - QF4: Wehrlein vs. Vandoorne
Wehrlein trailed early but produced a trademark strong second half to win comfortably. Even though he had a promising start of the lap, Vandoorne never stood a chance.
Semifinals
- SF1: De Vries vs. Ticktum
Ticktum’s warm-up lap mistake almost cost him as he went into the run off zone. Despite locking his tyres up during the mistake, they were inseparable with de Vries across the lap. Ultimately, De Vries edged it by just 0.009 seconds. It meant P4 start at best for Ticktum.
- SF2: Evans vs. Wehrlein
With both drivers coming off some good results in the recent past, this promised to be a close match. Evans began stronger, and although Wehrlein closed in late, the Jaguar TCS Racing driver stayed ahead to advance.
Final duel
Both drivers were evenly matched in the early sectors as de Vries faced Evans for the last duel of the day. The Dutchman ran deep in the final part of the lap, which cost him some time. Evans pounced on the opportunity and claimed pole for the second year running at the London E-Prix. The camera didn’t miss his proud mom celebrating with the rest of the team.
Evans will lead the field later today from pole position, followed by de Vries, Wehrlein and Ticktum. With a mixed-up grid behind and unpredictable London weather always a possibility, the race is still wide open for any of the drivers.