Rowland's hopes of early title clinch dented by Berlin grid penalty

Oliver Rowland has been handed a five-place grid penalty for the second race of the Berlin E-Prix after causing a collision with Stoffel Vandoorne in Sunday's race.

The Nissan driver was attempting to overtake Vandoorne up the inside at Turn 7 on lap 33 of the race, and made contact with the Maserati MSG Racing car, putting both into a spin. Rowland subsequently retired from the race, while Vandoorne was able to continue to a 12th place finish.

“I made an error of judgement on the safety car restart, attempting to overtake a lapped car and got on the wetter part of the track,” said Rowland. “It was a shame to be caught up in an incident like this because I think the final ten laps would’ve been very positive for us as I had saved my energy well.”

Despite the grid penalty and a non-score in Saturday's race – with main title rival Pascal Wehrlein finishing second and taking the fastest lap – Rowland is still looking good for the championship. His championship lead is now at 50 points, and he needs to leave Berlin with a 58-point advantage in order to seal the crown before the final double-header of the season in London in two weeks.

Even if he and Wehrlein finish the season equal on points, Rowland is likely to clinch the title with a better win record – he has four wins to Wehrlein’s one so far meaning the Porsche driver would need to win every race left this season to take it down to a tiebreaker. The pair currently have the same number of second places, but Wehrlein has a single third place finish, which Rowland doesn’t.

For Sunday’s race, Lucas di Grassi is currently a doubt after crashing heavily in the final practice session.

The Lola Yamaha Abt driver was approaching teammate Zane Maloney in Turn 1 with just over eight minutes of the 40 minute session remaining, but aquaplaned under braking and slammed into the wall.

There was also drama for Antonio Felix da Costa whose FP3 lasted just three laps after he lost his right rear wheel.