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The new format allows the best teams and drivers to showcase their speed and skill but maintains the possibility of any driver to step up, pull a lap out of the bag and fire themselves up the starting grid.
The Groups stage sees two groups of 11 drivers, ordered based on their Drivers' World Championship position, battling at 220kW to set lap times each in a 10-minute session, with the fastest four from each progressing into the Duels stage. Those eight will then face off in the quarter-finals, competing against one another head to head in a knockout at 250kW over the last eight into the semi-finals and on to the final.
The winning driver of the final duel takes Julius Baer Pole Position, while the runner-up lines up second. The semi-finalists will line up third and fourth, the quarter-finalists between fifth and eighth - according to their laptimes.
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The fifth to 12th-placed drivers who competed in the polesitter's group will fill the odd positions on the grid. The corresponding drivers from the other group will be classified in the even grid slots. So, if the polesitter comes from Group 1, the fifth placed driver in Group 1 will line up ninth on the starting grid and the fifth placed driver in Group 2 takes 10th and so on.
Alberto Longo, Chief Championship Officer and Co-founder, Formula E, said: “The changes being made to qualifying and race time reflect our and the FIA’s focus on sporting integrity and maximising the racing spectacle.
"Our new qualifying format will showcase the teams and drivers head-to-head throughout the season while still allowing any driver on their day to take pole position. For our fans, the new qualifying format was designed to be intuitive, unpredictable, and entertaining."