Sebastien Buemi claims a stunning Pole Position for the Paris ePrix

This afternoon saw Sebastien Buemi claim Pole Position for the Paris ePrix ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Jose Maria Lopez in a qualifying session that was extremely exciting and enjoyable and saw the closest gap between Pole and P2 in the series.

The first qualifying group consisted of Sebastien Buemi, Sam Bird, Daniel Abt, Stephane Sarrazin and Lucas Di Grassi who will be first group of drivers onto the track. As the session started, none of the drivers entered onto the circuit straight away; with the drivers picking and choosing their moment to get a quick lap in.

Daniel Abt was the first driver of the first group to make their way onto the circuit and this then started the floodgates for the rest of the drivers in the group to make their own way onto the circuit and set the quickest qualifying lap time possible.

But it was Sam Bird who set the pace early in the group which was then replaced quickly by Sebastien Buemi, Felix Rosenqvist, Lucas Di Grassi and Daniel Abt to see him end the group the slowest after I believe to have made some critical errors during his lap.

With group 2 consisting of Nelson Piquet Jnr, Mike Conway, Mitch Evans, Jose Maria Lopez and Nico Prost; all eyes were upon this group to see if they could challenge the previous group for grid position for the race later on today. Nico Prost was the first driver to make their way onto the circuit in order to get the best result possible on the circuit.

Prost was the first driver to set the pace in this group with third place overall which was then replaced by Lopez who managed a lap time for second place. But all eyes were on Mitch Evans who had a brilliant lap to finish the session at this point in fourth place. So heading into Group 3, the top five drivers were Buemi, Lopez, Rosenqvist, Evans and Prost.

In the second half of the qualifying session, Group 3 saw Jean-Eric Vergne, Oliver Turvey (who takes a ten place grid penalty for an engine change), Esteban Gutierrez, Jerome D’Ambrosio and Felix Roseqnvist seeing if they could challenge for the Super Pole.

D'Ambrosio was the first driver to set the pace in the group which saw him line up eighth on the grid. But Turvey then managed a brilliant lap to provisionally start in second place which was then replaced by Vergne. Meanwhile, Sarrazin has stopped in the final sector but managed to get it going again.

But the surprise of the group was Esteban Gutierrez who in his third Formula E race managed an astonishing lap to qualify fifth at this point in the session. The top five drivers heading into the last group was Buemi, Vergne, Turvey, Lopez and Gutierrez.

The last qualifying group of Nick Heidfeld, Robin Frijns, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Tom Dillman and Adam Carroll faced a lot of pressure to try and qualify for the Super Pole especially after some brilliant performances. Formula E debutante Tom Dillmann was the first driver out of the group to make his way onto the track who qualified in thirteenth place; with Antonio Felix Da Costa underperforming massively.

But all eyes were on Robin Frijns who was in a very quick lap in this group but couldn't manage to get into the Super Pole shootout and finished in seventh place. It was then left to Nick Heidfeld to see if he could change the order but with a big slide in the first half of his lap; he just missed out on Super Pole by ending the session in sixth place; just 0.014 of second behind Gutierrez.

The Super Pole shootout for the 2017 Paris ePrix consisted of Buemi, Vergne, Turvey, Lopez and Gutierrez. But let's not forget that despite Turvey putting in an amazing performance to get into this group; he will take a ten place grid penalty for changing his motor just before qualifying.

As our attentions focused onto the Super Pole shootout; many fans will have been wondering who would be our Pole sitter. Gutierrez is the first driver out of the group to set his 200kw lap but during his lap, Gutierrez locked up his Techeetah car at Turn 8 and was told by his team to complete the lap but his chance of getting Pole Position was over and it was up to Lopez to see what he could do.

With Lopez now heading the group, it was now up to Turvey, Vergne and Buemi to challenge the lap time Lopez had set. With Turvey and especially Vergne locking up during their laps, they did brilliantly well to set very fast lap times; with Vergne taking away provisional Pole Position from Lopez just before Buemi started his lap.

With Buemi challenging Vergne all the way, it was Sebastien Buemi who claimed Pole Position for the Paris ePrix with a stunning lap time of 1.02.319s. Buemi finished ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in second place who was 0.006 seconds behind and ahead of Jose Maria Lopez in third place who was 0.31 seconds behind Buemi.

Oliver Turvey qualified in fourth place (but has to take a ten place grid penalty) ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in fifth place, Nick Heidfeld in sixth place, Felix Rosenqvist in seventh place, Robin Frijns in eighth place, Mitch Evans in ninth place and Nico Prost in tenth place.

Mike Conway finished the session out of the top ten in eleventh place ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr in twelfth place, Jerome D'Ambrosio in thirteenth place, Lucas Di Grassi in fourteenth place and Tom Dillmann in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Daniel Abt qualified in sixteenth place ahead of Antonio Felix Da Costa in seventeenth place, Sam Bird in eighteenth place, Adam Carroll in nineteenth place and Stephane Sarrazin in twentieth place.

Keep your eyes peeled at Driving For Pleasure for our coverage of the 2017 FIA Formula E Qatar Paris ePrix with our race report today.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa