After finishing second in each of the first two Formula E races around Tokyo Big Sight, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland stepped to the top of the podium on Sunday in a thrilling Tokyo E-Prix.
The win gives Rowland, who finished second in the inaugural race in 2024 and then again on Saturday, an iron grip on the championship trophy in what he called a “dream” season.
“I keep wondering if at some point I’m going to wake up and find that this isn’t the reality,” Rowland said after the race at Tokyo Street Circuit.
Starting on pole for the second-straight day, Rowland fell back in the early stages of the race as the drivers around him used one of their two allotted Attack Mode periods, which provides the cars with a temporary energy boost and increases their chances of overtaking.
Rowland waited to use his first Attack Mode and failed to make the most of it, as Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy kept him at bay and stuck in sixth place.
His second Attack Mode came a little later and proved to be much more fruitful as he moved all the way to second behind race leader Pascal Wehrlein in the Porsche.
Rowland then made a hair-raising overtake of Wehrlein, squeezing his Nissan through a miniscule gap between Wehrlein and the wall at around 200 kilometers per hour.
Rowland was asked if he was 100% confident he had room to make the pass given how small the gap was.
“When I first chose to go there, yes. It got a bit smaller when I was in it. I didn’t have time to think about it, it was just a split second decision but I trusted my instincts."
But the British driver spent a lot of energy working his way through the field and then had to conserve his battery in the final laps, allowing several cars to bunch up behind him. That led to a chaotic flurry of overtaking attempts for Wehrlein and Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum.
McLaren’s Taylor Barnard, who finished third in the first race of the weekend on Saturday, hit the wall amid that chaos, forcing the deployment of the safety car.
“I felt like today I had a little bit of fortune,” Rowland said. “I really consumed quite a lot of energy ... and maybe I could have held on but I would have been really on the limit, but the safety car helped me out.”
The safety car came in with one lap remaining. Having used little energy during the slow laps behind the safety car, Rowland had no trouble holding off Wehrlein and Ticktum to take the checkered flag. The third-place finish was Ticktum’s first podium in Formula E.
“On one side, I was a bit disappointed," Wehrlein said. “On the other side, it was a good result for the team. ... It was a strong day for us.”
Lucas di Grassi finished an impressive fifth in the Yamaha-powered Lola.
Rowland, who now has a 77-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Wehrlein, brought his 3-year-old daughter onto the podium with him to celebrate his fourth win of the season.
“It was quite emotional for me after the race actually,” he said. “It was a really special moment to have her up there. I think before I became a dad, racing was all I lived for, but since having a family it’s changed my perspective on life.”
A day earlier, it was Maserati’s Stoffel Vandoorne who stood atop the podium after he hit the jackpot with his race strategy and converted the advantage into a win on a wet track.
The Belgian’s triumph came at the expense of Rowland, who slipped down to second after starting on pole.
Vandoorne was the lone driver to make his mandatory recharging Pit Boost stop when last year’s winner, Maximilian Guenther, stopped at the side of the track in his Penske with a mechanical issue on the 13th lap. That prompted a red flag and another standing start, reducing Vandoorne’s deficit and allowing him to pass the field when the rest of the drivers took their stops.
Vandoorne, whose previous win came in Monaco in his championship-winning season in 2022, burned as much energy as he could in the race’s early stages in order to allow him to do the Pit Boost stop as early as possible.
After the race, Vandoorne hailed his team’s bold strategy, which gave him an unexpected win from 14th on the grid.
“We got a bit lucky with the red flag,” Vandoorne said. “I knew that I would inherit the lead at some point and I just needed to bring it home. I was probably a bit too safe at some points and there were a couple of mistakes that shouldn’t have been there but in the end we brought it home and I’m super happy.”
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.