Gamble with Attack Mode strategy pays off for Rowland

Third time was definitely the charm for Oliver Rowland in Sunday’s Tokyo E-Prix as he finally converted pole to a victory in Japan.

Tokyo has been good to Rowland since it was introduced to the Formula E schedule last year. He’s started each of the three races held there from first on the grid and finished 2024’s race and the Saturday contest of this year’s doubleheader in second. But finally on Sunday he took that elusive win, ending Maserati’s stranglehold on race wins at the event.

It looked as if it could have been a similar story the third time around, too, with Rowland’s unorthodox Attack Mode strategy of taking two minutes for his first power boost – and taking it late, leaving him in traffic, all while battling a strong Dan Ticktum and Pascal Wehrlein. But that left him with a bigger second use of the boost, which he used to his advantage to reclaim the lead before a late race safety car.

“It was nice to finally get the win,” Rowland said. “I felt like probably in the last two I was a little bit unfortunate [that] I never managed to win here. And then today, I kind of had a little bit of fortune. Obviously I risked a little bit taking the six minutes, and really consumed quite a lot of energy to make the most of it. Maybe I could have hung on with the energy I had, but I'd have been really on the limit, and then the safety car helped me out quite a lot.”

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Rowland’s victory ended Maserati MSG Racing’s unbeaten run in Tokyo, with former driver Maximilian Guenther having won the inaugural race there last season and Stofel Vandoorne claiming victory on Saturday. It also gave Nissan a victory on home soil, marking a new peak in its resurgence in Formula E where it has gone from finishing seventh in the first season of GEN3 (2023-24) to leading both the teams' and manufacturers' standings now.

“I rejoined Nissan last year, who were really rebuilding last year,” said Rowland. “We rebuilt to the level that we're at now. They were able to improve the package quite significantly between Season 10 and 11, which allows us to fight a little bit easier. But I think we've just really improved every small percent and that's huge credit to all the team back in Viry.”

It also extended Rowland’s lead in the drivers' standings to 77 points, an unimaginable margin in such a closely fought series. But with the season now in its second half and Rowland seemingly already having one hand on the championship trophy, he still won’t be drawn into too much title talk.

“I've been on a fantastic streak of results, I keep wondering if at some point I'm going to wake up and find that this isn't the reality,” he said. “But it comes at a great time for me, and a really pivotal time for the championship and everything else.

“Of course, it's a really great lead. I'm not so much thinking of the championship. I had this mentality coming into this weekend – there's a lot of people talking about the gap I had, and I really wanted to just focus on having the same mentality that I'd had since the beginning.

“I said to myself, before this weekend, 'I'm going to do nothing different until after [the next rounds in] Shanghai and kind of reassess there.' And I think that still stands. I don't want to take my foot off the gas.

“We're only just halfway over halfway. Of course, I have a pretty significant lead, but the best way to lose it is to start thinking about it. So at the moment, it's just business as usual. Try and work hard before the next race and keep doing the best job we can.”