Oriol Servia will start the second-ever Formula E race from pole position, despite being pipped in Putrajaya qualifying by Nicolas Prost.
The Frenchman set the fastest lap during qualifying, a last-ditch 1m21.779s in Group 3 good enough to hold out the Group 4 runners, despite improving conditions.
But Prost won’t get to enjoy starting from pole position for a second successive race, as the e.Dams driver is set to start from 11th thanks to the 10-place grid penalty he picked up for his role in Nick Heidfeld’s last-lap crash in Beijing.
Prost’s penalty means Dragon Racing has a front-row lock-out, with Servia and Jerome d’Ambrosio – both of whom also qualified through Group 3 – being promoted to first and second respectively.
Sam Bird will start from third, having been the best of the Group 4 runners, while Daniel Abt will start from fourth, an impressive result given that he had to qualify through Group 1, when the track was at its greenest.
Jarno Trulli led the Group 2 runners and will start the race from fifth, ahead of Karun Chandhok and Nelson Piquet Jr, who caused a session-ending red flag in Group 1 when his China Racing entry ground to a halt at Turn 9.
Heidfeld will start eighth – despite having ended practice in the wall – while Bruno Senna and debutant Matthew Brabham will start ninth and 10th respectively after qualifying through Group 1.
All bar one of the four sessions was interrupted by a red flag. After Piquet’s technical problem in Group 1, Group 2 was halted a minute earlier than planned when Ho-Pin Tung spun through the quick Turn 9 and nosed his China Racing car into the wall.
Turn 9 claimed another scalp in Group 4, Jaime Alguersuari tearing the right front off his Virgin Racing Spark after seemingly being distracted by a slow-moving Lucas di Grassi.
The crash led to the session being paused, with neither driver involved reappearing after the break, despite di Grassi’s car showing no signs of damage.
The pair will occupy the last row, neither having set a time.
