Rowland leads all the way for first Formula E victory

Oliver Rowland scored his first Formula E victory at the 24th time of asking, with a superb drive from pole position in the penultimate race of the season.

Three days after Formula E’s latest champion was decided, a bizarre fiasco in group one of qualifying saw the four champions still in the series eliminated from setting qualifying laps by failing to make the chequered flag. Newly-installed Audi driver Rene Rast topped group qualifying and Super Pole was shaken up by a surprisingly showing by the group four contenders.

Jaguar newcomer Tom Blomqvist (in for James Calado, who has a World Endurance Championship commitment) managed sixth while Alex Lynn placed fifth in another Tempelhof Super Pole appearance for Mahindra. Rast bagged fourth and was joined on the second row by yet-to-score-points Porsche driver Neel Jani on a career best Formula E qualifying performance. The front row was covered by Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns, achieving his best qualifying result and pole winner Oliver Rowland, Nissan EDams’ main hope for a result with his team mate Sebastien Buemi starting from 22nd.

Rowland got a good getaway before a messy mid-pack crunch caught Nyck de Vries, Sam Bird and Oliver Turvey, sending Bird and De Vries right down the order and bodywork across the track. Max Guenther was initially the only driver to retire from a subsequent incident involving Lucas di Grassi and Jerome D’Ambrosio, with a slow right rear puncture that sent him back to the pits with damage.

Bird then seemed to suffer a similar misfortune, coming into the pits with tyre pressure problems and front wing damage. He re-emerged 30 seconds behind an otherwise very close field.

Jean-Eric Vergne’s recovery drive was interrupted by a drive-through penalty for excess battery cooling on the grid, taking him essentially out of any hope of contention for points despite a relatively strong climb up the grid.

With just under 30 minutes to go Lucas di Grassi – on a charge up the field alongside the other front runners – went into the side of newly-crowned champion Antonio Felix da Costa. That left Di Grassi with a puncture and sent Da Costa off-course.

The front pack stayed reasonably steady until the last 20 minutes when Jani, running third, took Attack Mode. That handed a place to his team mate Andre Lotterer, who had started four places behind him.

Rowland and Frijns in first and second managed to take their Attack Modes without losing places but the order behind them started rapidly switching. Lynn, Rast and Jani swapped places when they took Attack Mode. Meanwhile Jaguar’s Mitch Evans – having a torrid Tempelhof week – was up to seventh from 13th, having used both Attack Modes and his Fanboost to climb the field.

The top two finished where they started but the final lap became a wheel-banging fiasco for third as Lotterer and Rast duelled on dwindling energy, seeing Rast eventually cross the line for his first Formula E podium with half his front wing hanging off. The contact between the two was then immediately placed under investigation, to be resolved post-race.

Rowland#s victory means he narrowly takes second place in the championship from Vergne, though the runner-up spot won’t be decided until tomorrow’s final.

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