During the group stages Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi led the way, but both made mistakes when it mattered, handing D’Ambrosio his first career pole in the all-electric series.

It was a doubly good day for Dragon Racing as Loic Duval set the second fastest time ensuring the American team have locked out the front row. Sam Bird will line up third for DS Virgin, while di Grassi and Buemi are fourth and fifth respectively. Di Grassi clipped the wall in the first chicane, while Buemi outbraked himself into Turn 8.

The Renault e.dams driver in particular will still fancy his chances in the race as he has been leading the way whenever he’s had a trouble-free run.

In the group stages Oliver Turvey set the pace in Q1, out-qualifying team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr in the NEXTEV TCR battle and will start 10th. Jean-Eric Vergne – a potential Super Pole candidate was eliminated after first making a mistake and then being baulked by Nathanael Berthon at the end of the lap.

In the second session, di Grassi came to the fore and held on to the top stop until Buemi’s run in the final group. Lucky for the Swiss that he got his time in early as the session was stopped when Jacques Villeneuve shunted his Venturi hard into the barriers at the penultimate corner. There was a huge cheer when the 1997 F1 world champion climbed out unhurt from the car, but he’ll start 18th and last for tomorrow’s race.