Rowland's Berlin DNF prolongs Formula E title fight
Formula E

Rowland's Berlin DNF prolongs Formula E title fight

by Jack Cozens
3 min read

Oliver Rowland missed out on a first chance to wrap up the 2024-25 Formula E drivers' championship title as he retired from a wet first race of the Berlin weekend, while chief title rival Pascal Wehrlein finished runner-up behind Mitch Evans.

Having just taken his second attack mode deployment, shortly after a late-race safety car restart, Rowland lunged to the inside of Stoffel Vandoorne at the Turn 6-7 double-right-hander but made contact with the Maserati driver in doing so.

The championship leader lamented "What is this Drugovich doing, man?", suggesting that Aston Martin Formula 1 reserve driver Felipe Drugovich - standing in for Nyck de Vries at Mahindra - might have made contact with him.

But replays did not suggest this was the case, the contact with Vandoorne leaving Rowland with broken front-left suspension that removed him from mid-pack points contention.

It means Rowland has now scored only a single point from the last three races - though his advantage coming into the Berlin weekend was such that his lead was reduced to a still-healthy 50 points with three races remaining.

Runner-up Wehrlein worked his way into contention at the head of the pack in the early stages and finished less than half a second behind Evans, bagging the bonus point for fastest lap along the way, but might have had a better shot at victory without a slide on the penultimate lap.

He'd also been baulked on the restart by Nissan stand-in Sergio Sette Camara, which allowed Evans to take his second attack mode without forfeiting the lead.

Evans was a deserving winner, though, having taken pole position and led by multiple seconds at various stages in the race on his way to a second victory of the season.

The two leaders finished well clear of the chasing pack, led on-the-road by Antonio Felix da Costa.

But Porsche was denied a 2-3 podium finish shortly after the chequered flag when da Costa was handed a five-second penalty for sending Maserati driver Jake Hughes into a spin in the latter stages.

That dropped da Costa to 10th and instead promoted Edoardo Mortara to the final podium position for Mahindra.

Mortara finished just over a tenth of a second ahead of McLaren's Taylor Barnard, while Nick Cassidy charged from 21st on the grid to end up fifth in the second works Jaguar entry.

Maximilian Guenther ran an aggressive strategy early in the race and was briefly second on the safety car restart but ended up sixth in the sole-remaining DS Penske - as team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who'd arguably been in better shape heading into the final part of the race, slowed as the safety car period was ending.

Sebastien Buemi overcame a 10-second penalty that he served under the first safety car period to come through to seventh for Envision, ahead of Nico Mueller (Andretti) and Dan Ticktum.

He'd benefitted from the second safety car period - caused by team-mate David Beckmann stopping on track after being tagged by Sette Camara, the driver he replaced at Kiro for the 2024-25 season - as Ticktum had saved both attack mode deployments for the latter stages of the race.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More Networks