Rowland reigns supreme in crazy second Tokyo E-Prix race

Oliver Rowland survived late race chaos to win the second race of the Tokyo E-Prix, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein.

The Nissan driver faced late pressure from Wehrlein, as well as fellow front-row starter Dan Ticktum, but a safety car with four laps to go negated the need for energy saving towards the end of the race, and the relatively straightforward one lap dash to the finish that came as a result presented a stark contrast to what has occurred in the laps leading up to it.

Rowland had left it late to take his first Attack Mode compared to his rivals, going to the activation zone for the first time on lap 17 of 33. That dropped him into traffic, and having only gone for a two minute use, he struggled to move back to the front initially.

That would later work in his favor, as when he took his second Attack on lap 22, he now had six minutes of his full race allotment of eight minutes to use while Wehrlein, Ticktum, and Taylor Barnard ahead of him only had a four minutes at their disposal.

By lap 24, Rowland had got back to second behind Wehrlein, and used that extra Attack Mode he had in hand to take the lead two laps later, with him having 45 seconds of the additional power and four-wheel-drive available by the time the rest of the lead quartet had used up their allocation.

Clawing his way back to the front had come at the expense of increased energy usage for Rowland, though, and that meant that Wehrlein, Ticktum, and Barnard were right on his tail and the race was still wide open.

With Rowland and Wehrlein dueling over the lead, Ticktum had built up an energy advantage of around two percent and despite pressure from Barnard, he was able to keep pace with the lead two and snuck up the inside of Wehrlein for second at the first turn on lap 29.

By this point Edoardo Mortara had joined the four-way lead fight, but made contact with Barnard at Turn 6, sending the NEOM McLaren driver into the wall and out of the race, bringing out the safety car, and with it a pause for breath after an intense couple of laps.

With the safety car, drivers – most notably Rowland – could now go flat out to the finish, with no more lifting and coasting, opening up overtaking opportunities. And with the green flag coming out with a single lap to go, the race finished largely as it had when the safety car was called.

Rowland’s win was his fourth of the season, equalling the second-highest number of wins in a season, and with seven races still to go. Wehrlein’s second capped off a fine turnaround from Saturday where he struggled to get the most out of his Porsche in the wet and could only finish 13th.

Ticktum, who’d who had led early on after using his first Attack Mode to get past Rowland, came home third to give him and Cupra Kiro their first podiums in Formula E while Jake Dennis made up ten positions throughout the race thanks to a well-executed Attack Mode strategy to finish fourth.

Mortara had finished fifth on the road, but was dropped to 12 post race after receiving a five second penalty for causing the collision with Barnard. That moved Lucas di Grassi up to fifth, giving Lola Yamaha Abt its second points finish of the season.

Jean-Eric Vergne was sixth, while Nick Cassidy was another who'd carved his way through the field, converting 13th on the grid to seventh by the race's end. Sam Bird salvaged four points for McLaren in eighth, doing so despite sustaining a hit from Nyck de Vries in the opening laps. Sebastien Buemi and Maximilian Guenther rounded out the points scorers.

After winning on Saturday, Stoffel Vandoorne was retired after he collided with Norman Nato, while Mitch Evans failed to start the race after his crash in qualifying, with Jaguar TCS Racing unable to repair his car in time.

Rowland's win ended Maserati MSG Racing's unbeaten streak on the strets of Tokyo and opens up his championship lead to 77 points, while second in the race moves Wehrlein up to second in the standings at the expense of Antonio Felix da Costa who retired with suspension damage after colliding with Mortara after the field came under Full Course Yellow conditions to clear debris from de Vries' wing after it had broken following his earlier contact with Bird.

After taking the Teams' championship lead on Saturday, Nissan kept that position atop the standings, with a 15 point lead over TAG Heuer Porsche, while it remains in the lead of the Manufacturers' standings as well, 44 points ahead of Porsche.

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