Rowland takes victory after another epic Monaco E-Prix weekend
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 4 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Nissan's Oliver Rowland took his second victory around the streets of Monaco, and his first of Season 12, as he delivered a knockout blow in his quest to claim a second Formula E title.
The Briton, who had started eighth on the road, managed to make up valuable ground using his six-minute attack mode activation late in the race, claiming the race lead from Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara, and remaining untroubled.
Mortara would drop to fifth due to an in-race time penalty, giving Andretti's Felipe Drugovich his first Formula E podium. The Jaguar duo of António Félix da Costa and Mitch Evans finished third and fourth.
Further back, a late race scrap saw Drugovich's teammate Jake Dennis seal sixth, ahead of Porsche's Nico Müller and Envision's Joel Eriksson. Round 9 winner Nyck de Vries limped home to ninth with a broken front nose cone, while Lucas di Grassi made it a double points finish for Lola in Monaco, with 10th.
AS IT UNFOLDED - Round 10 at Monaco
Cupra Kiro's Dan Ticktum took his second consecutive pole at Monaco earlier in the day, ahead of Jaguar's António Félix da Costa. The margin was one of the largest in the championship, at almost 0.7 seconds between the two drivers at the end of the final.
The top three of Ticktum, da Costa and Edoardo Mortara held their positions off the five red lights. While minimal changes of position took place, it was fourth-placed Jean-Éric Vergne who attempted a move on Mortara at the Nouvelle Chicane.
With the drivers going side by side and scrapping for position, Mortara clipped the rear of da Costa's Jaguar, spinning him around and dropping him to 16th on the road.
Mortara and Vergne managed to make a change for the lead onto Lap 2, with Ticktum slotting into third as they headed into the first sector of the circuit. The Swiss man initially tried to open up a gap and pull away from the rest. However, a crucial team radio advised him to 'massively under-consume' energy throughout the race.
Meanwhile, Porsche's Nico Müller took his first of two attack modes, becoming the first driver to take his dose of extra power onto Lap 4. He would swiftly make up ground, passing several drivers and taking the lead from Mortara on Lap 6. The Mahindra man had received a 10-second time penalty for his opening lap incident, to be served at his next pit stop.
A yellow flag was thrown for Nissan's Norman Nato, who had come to a stop on the exit of the pit lane. This came about as a result of his battle with DS Penske's Taylor Barnard, with the Nissan man making heavy contact with the barriers into the final corner. Barnard would receive a 10-second time penalty for his incident too.
Several drivers had taken their first round of attack modes, including the Envision pair of Joel Eriksson and Sébastien Buemi, Ticktum's teammate Pepe Martí and Lola's Lucas di Grassi.
Mitch Evans would take six minutes of attack mode on Lap 9, dropping to ninth, as he attempted to make the best use of the extra power to stay in the hunt.
Up ahead, Mortara had managed to close back up to Müller, who had now run out of attack mode, and ran in clean air. Evans became the fourth different race leader on Lap 10, utilising his attack mode to make a close move around the outside of Turn 3 on Müller.
Both Andrettis of Jake Dennis and Felipe Drugovich had taken their first attack modes, climbing up to fourth and fifth in the process. As Mortara attempted a late dive on Müller to take second into Sainte Devote on Lap 15, Drugovich managed to make up two positions, stealing second on the road with a move at the tight Beau Rivage section.
A close moment between Dennis and Barnard on Lap 16 would see both drivers make contact, with Dennis cutting the Sainte Devote corner and staying ahead, before relinquishing his position to his compatriot.
Evans, who had been running in the lead for a long time, had run slightly short on energy compared to his rivals, and gave up the lead to Mortara, before Ticktum utilised the last of his attack mode to take second.
Several drivers would find themselves with damaged cars on Lap 18, with Buemi and Müller making contact at the Rascasse corner, and dropping down the order. Vergne too would circulate around the track with a broken front wing, before an attempted dive by Martí and Cassidy ended in tears for the Spaniard.
This incident also triggered the full course yellow on Lap 19, with both da Costa and Mortara still running in attack mode at the time of the deployment.
da Costa took his second attack mode of two minutes as racing action returned on Lap 20, before taking back his race lead.
Behind them, though, Rowland would be the driver to watch, climbing up to third after taking six minutes of attack mode. As Mortara and fourth-placed Drugovich too took their final bout of attack modes, the race was set for an exciting conclusion.
Despite hanging back, Mortara managed to grab the lead on Lap 23, with Rowland and Drugovich climbing back into third. Rowland would grab the race lead from the Mahindra man, who was running out of attack mode.
Ticktum would receive a five-second time penalty for overspeeding under full course yellow conditions, as he ran eighth in his final attack mode.
Further drama would unfold as the race headed into its penultimate laps, with Barnard crashing into the barrier at Portier corner, triggering a yellow flag. Despite managing to get going, the full course yellow was imposed.
This was quickly withdrawn on Lap 27, leaving drivers with one final burst to go for gold. Rowland, though, would be untroubled, as he sealed his first victory of the season, and second around the streets of Monaco.
Drugovich came home second, taking his maiden Formula E podium, while da Costa claimed third on the road after Mortara's penalty, which dropped him to fifth on the road.
An exciting race indeed, and here's how it all stacks up after Round 10 around Monaco:
Classification - Monaco E-Prix (Round 10)
Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
Felipe Drugovich (Andretti)
António Félix da Costa (Jaguar)
Mitch Evans (Jaguar)
Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing)
Jake Dennis (Andretti)
Nico Müller (Porsche)
Joel Eriksson (Envision Racing)
Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing)
Lucas di Grassi (Lola Yamaha ABT)
Zane Maloney (Lola Yamaha ABT)
Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
Max Günther (DS Penske)
Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro)
Taylor Barnard (DS Penske)
Jean-Éric Vergne (Citroën Racing)
Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing)
Nick Cassidy (Citroën Racing)
Norman Nato (Nissan) - DNF
Pepe Martí (Cupra Kiro) - DNF
