Rome E-Prix: Vergne dispatches Dennis for race 2 pole

Although Dennis had blazed his way to the final with an impressive 1m37.997s to go half a second clear of his semi-final opponent - race 1 winner Mitch Evans - he was unable to repeat those heroics in the final.

Vergne was able to keep it clean as Dennis got a bit out of shape in the first sector and, although the Avalanche Andretti driver had recouped some of the arrears in the final sector, it was not enough to deny Vergne pole position.

The pole lap that Vergne registered in the final stood at a 1m38.268s, just over a tenth slower than his lap from his semi-final against friend and former team-mate Andre Lotterer, which the Frenchman edged by 0.2s.

Vergne's quarter-final bout against Robin Frijns was also closely contested, with the Envision driver having the upper hand in the opening sector by over a tenth of a second.

But Vergne chipped away at the Dutchman, taking a smidgen of time out of him in the second sector, before leaping above in the times in the final sector by just under a tenth overall.

Lotterer dispatched Stoffel Vandoorne in their quarter-final duel, the two separated by under a tenth through the opening brace of sectors before Vandoorne ran out of steam in the final part of the lap, ending the laps 0.3s off the Porsche man.

But the German manufacturer endured a reversal in the next heat, with Pascal Wehrlein dumped out of the duels by Dennis by a similar margin.

The semi-final lap from Lotterer was good enough to collect third on the grid, ahead of Evans.

Andre Lotterer, Porsche climbs out of his car in the pit lane

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Evans, following yesterday's impressive victory from ninth on the grid, made his first duels appearance by topping the Group B times - where he