ROWLAND REIGNS IN TOKYO AS CHAMPIONSHIP LEADER CHARGES TO VICTORY ON NISSAN’S HOME SOIL

Another imperious performance sees the Briton open up a commanding 77-point margin at the summit of the standings heading to China…

Oliver Rowland delivered Nissan Formula E Team the home turf triumph it had been hunting in Tokyo today (18 May), in so doing taking another significant step towards clinching a maiden ABB FIA Formula E World Championship crown.

Rowland has started all three Tokyo E-Prixs to-date from pole position, but the first two of those races yielded only the runner-up spoils. At the third time of asking, the British star was in no mood to settle for second-best again.

Having led the early stages, Rowland dropped back to fourth as others activated their Attack Modes while he kept his powder dry. When his own first all-wheel-drive deployment shortly after mid-distance then failed to pay off – with the Yorkshireman slipping further down the order to fifth – he knew he needed to roll the dice.

On lap 22, he jinked out to take Attack Mode for the second time – earlier than immediate competitors Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team), Dan Ticktum (CUPRA KIRO) and Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren Formula E Team), and forcing them to respond.

By the time they were able to, however, Rowland was already up to second behind Wehrlein, and when the German’s extra power ran out, the championship leader still had 45 seconds left to use. He did not waste it.

Despite Wehrlein’s best efforts to defend – edging his Nissan rival towards the wall on lap 26 – Rowland held his nerve to boldly reclaim the advantage. He thereafter staved the reigning champion off to the chequered flag to cement his seventh career victory in the pioneering all-electric series – and fourth from nine races in Season 11.

His hard-fought success in the Japanese capital has enabled the Barnsley native to extend his advantage at the top of the title table to a commanding 77 points with seven rounds remaining on the schedule.

Porsche-powered drivers rounded out the rostrum, in the shape of Wehrlein – whose third top three finish of the campaign has elevated him to second in the standings – and Ticktum. For the latter, the result marked a milestone achievement, as he converted a front row start into both his and CUPRA KIRO’s maiden podium finish in Formula E. The last time the team formerly known as NIO had scaled such heights was back in 2018.

Courtesy of an impressive climb through the field, Barnard was similarly in the mix for a champagne celebration, energetically trading places with Ticktum late on before his challenge was curtailed by a nudge from Edoardo Mortara that pitched his McLaren into the Turn Five tyres. The incident brought out the safety car and earned the Mahindra Racing driver a five-second penalty, dropping him to 12th in the final classification.

That set the scene for a single-lap dash to the flag once the action resumed, but following the frantic earlier exchanges, there was no further movement in the order, as Season 9 champion Jake Dennis (Andretti Formula E) secured fourth position, representing an eye-catching ten-place gain over his grid slot.

Fellow former title-holder Lucas Di Grassi rewarded Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team with a strong result on the Japanese manufacturer’s home soil in fifth, with the top ten scorers completed by two-time champion Jean-Éric Vergne (DS Penske), Jaguar TCS Racing’s Nick Cassidy, the second McLaren of Sam Bird, recent Monaco winner Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing) and DS Penske’s Maximilian Günther, who triumphed in Tokyo last year.

António Félix da Costa (Porsche) – second in the points arriving in Japan – retired from sixth place after damaging his car when he ran into the back of Mortara at the beginning of a mid-race Full Course Yellow period.

The 2024/25 Formula E campaign will continue with another double-header Asian duel in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai on 31 May – 1 June.

Oliver Rowland, No. 23, Nissan Formula E Team said: 

“No words! I was not a master of strategy in the first half of the race, I was pretty disappointed in myself. But I figured out that everybody would kind of undercut me so I thought: ‘I’ve got six minutes, I’ll undercut them’ and in the end it worked. I knew they would all react. I just had to make the progress on the first lap so it paid off today, but I was a bit lucky. I’ve always said that in Tokyo and Shanghai I need to keep pushing to extend the Championship lead. Going into Shanghai I’ll have the same approach this year and then maybe after that we can start to think about the lead we’ve got.”

Pascal Wehrlein, No. 94, TAG Heuer Porsche said:

“It was an important day in general I think, as yesterday was very tricky. At the moment I’m still a bit disappointed because I think we could have done better, but there was just no way to defend my position when Oli [Rowland] was in ATTACK MODE. I did everything right and probably we need to analyse what we could have done better, but still, second is a good result with Dan [Ticktum] in P3. It’s a very strong day for our package, which on the other side makes all of us happy.”

Dan Ticktum, No. 33, Cupra Kiro said:

“It feels pretty good! I’m already like ‘if we had done this or done that’ I could have won, but I’m very happy overall and it’s a big boost for the team. I just don’t feel like we’ve ever had a breakthrough this season and that’s it. We’re really competing consistently at the top now across all conditions and the team executed a pretty flawless weekend – so I’m happy. There’s not a huge amount I could have done, there was quite a long time when I was forced to lead which was obviously not ideal, and then when me and Pascal [Wehrlein] went to take ATTACK MODE, Oli [Rowland] got in between us. I don’t know what more we could have done from our side really, just different strategies and it didn’t quite work out for P1 or P2, but ‘Driver of the Day’, I’ll take that – I thought everyone hated me! I’m happy, it’s good, thank you to everyone who voted for me, I appreciate it.”