Rowland back on top with victory in second Monaco E-Prix

Oliver Rowland kick-started his Formula E title defense by taking his first race of the season in the second race of the Monaco E-Prix.

Rowland started eighth and spent much of the first half of the race among the top 10. The crucial move for him was splitting his eight minutes of Attack Mode into two- and six-minute uses rather than the typical even split of four minutes, which enabled him to power through late on.

The Nissan driver moved up to second on lap 22, passing Jaguar TCS Racing’s Antonio Felix da Costa who'd used up all of his Attack Mode. Then, rather than sitting behind race leader Edoardo Mortara – who was out of the race win equation owing to a 10-second penalty he received for lap 1 contact with da Costa – he passed the Mahindra driver a lap later, then used him as a buffer to fend off those behind him.

Andretti's Felipe Drugovich was third on the road but took second after Mortara's penalty for his first Formula E podium. He managed his energy well in the pack and likewise used a late Attack Mode – albeit for four minutes – to keep in touch with the leaders at the end.

Da Costa recovered from a first-lap spin at the Nouvelle Chicane after being tagged by Mortara to take third, ahead of his teammate Mitch Evans, whose Attack Mode strategy was the inverse of Rowland's.

Evans had moved into the lead on lap 11 with a stunning move round the outside of both Mortara and Nico Mueller and went on to manage the pace from the front. But as the race progressed, and with a shorter second Attack Mode, he wouldn't have enough to overhaul Rowland and Drugovich in front, nor da Costa who’d rebounded with an earlier Attack Mode strategy.

After his penalty, Mortara ended up taking fifth, while Jake Dennis managed to finish sixth for Andretti despite a somewhat scrappy race where he had contact with both Taylor Barnard and Dan Ticktum, both on lap 16. Nico Mueller also netted points for Porsche despite contact in the race. A lap after Dennis' bumps, he hit the wall at La Rascasse after clipping Citroen’s Jean-Eric Vergne.

Envision Racing’s Joel Eriksson, Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries, and Lucas di Grassi rounded out the scorers, the Lola Yamaha Abt driver sneaking in after a penalty for 10th place-finishing Maximilian Guenther, given to him after he sent Sebastien Buemi airborne at the Grand Hotel Hairpin with a failed move up the inside on lap 13.

That dropped the DS Penske driver down to 13th, behind Zane Maloney and Pascal Wehrlein, while polesitter Ticktum ended up 14th after a five-second penalty for over speeding during a full course yellow. He had already faded out of podium contention in the latter stages of the race though, needing to conserve energy after a solid run in the top three early on.

That FCY was coincidentally caused by his Cupra Kiro teammate Pepe Marti, who had come together with Nick Cassidy at La Rascasse. Marti’s car was unable to continue after the incident, but Cassidy kept going for a last-place finish.

Aside from Marti, Norman Nato was the only other retirement from the race, while there was another FCY late on for Barnard who slid into the barriers at Mirabeau after an ambitious attempt to pass Evans. He was able to continue despite that, finishing 15th.

Evans' lead in the drivers' championship now sits at 19 points over Oliver Rowland who has surged from fourth to second with his win. Mortara remains in third, six points off Rowland, while Wehrlein – who went into the weekend as championship leader – has slumped to fourth after a non-score on Sunday.

Jaguar's lead over Porsche in the teams' standing has grown from two points to 26, but Porsche's gap to third place Mahindra has grown from 18 points to 38. Porsche still leads the manufacturers' standings, though, its lead being cut by just one point to now sit at 12 points.

Formula E now enters a month-long break before the Asian leg of its schedule, which begins with the Sanya E-Prix in China on June 20.

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