The Briton discovered himself a tenth down on Vandoorne after the opening sector on the Shanghai Worldwide Circuit, with Components E utilizing a truncated format of the grand prix format.
Hughes overturned the deficit right into a acquire of practically half a tenth by means of the center sector, however a faster ultimate sector for Vandoorne meant the pair have been separated by the smallest ever margin for pole.
The outcome marks Hughes’ second pole of the season after taking high spot in Misano.
Having scored his first factors of the season in Saturday’s opening Shanghai race, Nyck de Vries made it by means of to the duels for the primary time on Sunday however went out within the semi-finals.
The Mahindra driver completed 0.226s behind Vandoorne, whereas Hughes obtained the higher of Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa by over a tenth to progress to the ultimate.
Present championship chief Nick Cassidy didn’t progress past the quarter-final stage, as Vandoorne overturned a small deficit by means of the ultimate sector to beat the Jaguar driver by 0.006s – his 1m13.666s the quickest from qualifying.
Stoffel Vandoorne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Winner of the primary Shanghai E-Prix, the second Jaguar of Mitch Evans completed simply over a tenth behind da Costa, as Nissan’s Oliver Rowland was one other championship protagonist to overlook out having completed practically two tenths slower than de Vries.
A faster ultimate sector was not sufficient for Andretti’s Norman Nato to overturn a deficit to Hughes, the pair separated by 0.073s on the line.
Simply over three tenths coated all 11 drivers within the opening qualifying group, as the highest 4 which included Rowland, Vandoorne, Cassidy and de Vries, have been separated by solely 0.025s.
Maximillian Guenther was the primary driver to overlook the reduce by simply 0.018s, because the Maserati MSG driver headed Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) and ERT’s Dan Ticktum.
Reigning champion Jake Dennis took eighth for Andretti, adopted by Jehan Daruvala (Maserati MSG), and the Envisions of Robin Frijns and Sebastien Buemi.
Polesitter for Saturday’s Shanghai E-Prix, DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne missed out on the duels by 0.013s, as Hughes topped the second qualifying group from da Costa, Evans and Nato.
Runner-up yesterday, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein might solely end seventh behind Sam Bird (McLaren), as Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), each Abts of Nico Muller and Lucas di Grassi, and Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) accomplished the order.