E-Prix London 2026, Qualifying 2: Mahindra double, but Wehrlein eyes the title

The last qualifying session of the 2025/2026 championship had real pros and cons for Pascal Wehrlein, who with the pole position and the victory in yesterday’s first London race took the lead in the championship. Also today, the German Porsche driver stood out in the fight for pole position, not achieved due to the excellent performance of the two Mahindra drivers: Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara. While the former finished ahead of everyone, defeating Wehrlein in the semifinal, the Swiss lost the ‘derby’ against his teammate after overcoming the other Porsche of Müller. Yet, analyzing the starting grid, Wehrlein will enjoy some advantages: above all, the disastrous performance of his direct rival Jack Dennis, who due to elimination in Group B will start from as low as 16th place. Still, Mitch Evans, 5th on the grid, should not be underestimated, as he is motivated to make a complex comeback in the overall standings.

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Group A and B

Just like in the first qualifying sessions held at the ExCel Exhibition Center in London, Pascal Wehrlein went out on track in Group A along with Evans, Da Costa, Cassidy, De Vries, Drugovich, Martì, Eriksson, Di Grassi, and Nato. The session started off badly for the latter, forced to stop in the runoff area due to technical problems that forced him to retire. On the contrary, Wehrlein confirmed himself in the top 4, this time in second position behind De Vries and ahead of the duo formed by Cassidy and Evans. Poor performance, however, for the second Jaguar of Da Costa, 5th and eliminated. In Group B, the direct rival of Wehrlein in the fight for the world title, Jack Dennis, faced Rowland, Buemi, Muller, Mortara, Gunther, Barnard, Maloney, Ticktum, and Vergne. Yet, it was in this group that the first twist occurred: the Andretti team driver did not go beyond eighth place, ending his qualifying immediately and offering a golden opportunity to Wehrlein. Mortara, on the other hand, set the best time ahead of the Porsche of Müller, who qualified for the quarterfinals along with Ticktum and Barnard.

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Head-to-head clashes

In the first duels, Wehrlein took advantage of the great chance ‘offered’ by Dennis to defeat Cassidy in the quarterfinals, distancing the Citroen driver by over a second. Evans, third in the world championship standings, failed to do the same against De Vries, while Müller secured the pass to the semifinal against Mortara thanks to a mistake by Ticktum. However, what spoiled Wehrlein’s plans to claim a second consecutive pole position was De Vries: the Dutch Mahindra driver defeated the German in the semifinal by only 22 thousandths of a second, with Müller in turn beaten by Mortara, for a second row all Porsche. The Mahindra ‘derby’ in the final, instead, was resolved in favor of De Vries. Below is the starting grid for the last race of the 2025/2026 season, which will air today at 16:05 live on Italia 1.

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London E-Prix 2025/2026, Race 2 Starting Grid