Pascal Wehrlein outqualified Stoffel Vandoorne in Formula E's fourth race's final qualifying session. They differed by two thousandths.
Sao Paulo drivers were split into two 11-person groups. They had 12 minutes to post a time among the quickest four in their group.
The first group—Nick Cassidy (championship leader), Mitch Evans, Nick de Vries, Robin Frijns, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Jean-Éric Vergne—had to return inside after five seconds.
Because a big balloon had landed on the track, it had to be removed first.
After the little wait, Cassidy missed the elimination laps by 0.011. The surprise Müller, Vergne, Vandoorne, and Evans left.
Porsche driver Wehrlein, Bird (McLaren), Mortara (De Vries' Mahindra teammate), and fastest man Max Günther qualified from the second group for the last eight.
The latter suffers a 20-spot grid penalty for the latter race owing to gearbox replacement.