Safety car intervention crucial to Rowland's storm to the front in Mexico City

Oliver Rowland admitted that he would have found it hard to win the Mexico City E-Prix without safety car intervention.

The Nissan driver began the restart front the first of two safety car periods in fourth, and used his Attack Mode power advantage to shoot past Jake Dennis, Pascal Wehrlein, and Antonio Felix da Costa in a single lap before the race was neutralized once again. Rowland says it was that safety car intervention that proved crucial to him having the pace to hold off the Porsche-powered cars, having been in energy conservation mode earlier on.

“I think the race was a good one,” he said. “In the beginning, we we're trying to kind of save a bit of energy and stay calm. I think in terms of the safety car in the end, there was an element of luck, but I also lost nearly six minutes of attack mode.

“But I do honestly think I would have found it hard to win without that safety car, because I was struggling a little bit to be efficient after 10 laps.”

Rowland says that he likely would’ve caught up to the lead trio – having been around two second off then-third placed Dennis before the first safety car – but advancing further, and ultimately remaining in front, would have been less certain.

“I think it's hard to say,” he admitted. “I don't have the exact numbers on energy. I think I would have got back to them, but I think had I passed them, I would have consumed too much and struggled to maintain the lead.

“But obviously, when I took (Attack Mode) already in half a lap, I noticed how much I gained on Jake. I think my strategy at that point would have probably been to get to these guys and then consolidate a podium. But yeah, and then when I got the chance to go for it, I just went for it.

“I was going to give it a go. It was obviously a little bit easier, because we weren't really worried about energy after that. So I was able to just go full gas on all three corners and give it a go.”