Winners and Losers from the Monaco E-Prix
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 2 hours ago
- 11 min read
An exciting Monaco E-Prix weekend made for plenty of on-track action, with several drivers having weekends to forget amidst a sea of firsts. While the championship picture has changed significantly after two races in the Principality, DIVEBOMB looks into the drivers who gained the most and lost out big time on the streets of Monaco.
Winner: Nyck de Vries
Season 12 hasn’t been kind to Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries, in the slightest. A string of incidents across the season has cost the Dutchman loads of points in São Paulo, Madrid and at Round 8 in Berlin. Technical gremlins have struck the Mahindra in Mexico City and Jeddah, robbing him of more opportunities to climb up the order.
However, Monaco has been kinder to de Vries after his return to the championship. In Season 11, he scored his first podium for Mahindra at the venue, opening up the floodgates for a successful climb to fourth for the Indian manufacturer.
In Season 12, though, it was an excellent showing, perhaps foreshadowed as he topped both FP1 and FP2 earlier on, before setting the quickest time in Group B of qualifying.
Starting second after losing the final to Dan Ticktum’s Cupra Kiro, de Vries hung back early in the race, sitting in the slipstream of the Briton ahead until his Pit Boost stop.
Being the first of the frontrunners to make his mandatory pit stop, de Vries had plenty of clear air to make up time. Emerging behind da Costa while in attack mode, the Mahindra man swiftly took back the lead with a smooth move into Tabac corner, this time on a dry circuit.
Keeping a cool head, de Vries circled the rest of the laps, fending off Mitch Evans in the Jaguar before taking his first victory for Mahindra, and a first in four seasons for himself.
Despite a qualifying setback the following day, de Vries ascended a total of seven positions during the race, leaving the weekend with 29 points to his tally after his first double points score in a season.
His haul of points aided Mahindra’s charge in the standings, as the team closed the gap to second-placed Porsche to 38 points.
Loser: Edoardo Mortara
Monaco’s Round 9 saw several big names trip up and visit the stewards' office for incidents during the race. One of them was de Vries’ teammate Edoardo Mortara, who suffered a technical issue in qualifying and started on the last row of the grid.
Even after running in lower-scoring positions at one point, a penalty for tyre pressures and a puncture caused by an incident at the Hairpin with Nico Müller’s Porsche left him reeling, as he eventually came home in 17th.
“It’s a shame to end the day the way we did, but these things happen on a street circuit,” Mortara said, reflecting on the close racing that cost him a trip through the pits.
It was this close racing which brought about the Swiss racer’s fall in Round 10 as well. Having qualified third, Mortara attempted to defend his position from a charging Jean-Éric Vergne into the Nouvelle chicane on the opening lap.
As both drivers went side by side, the Mahindra man tipped second-placed António Félix da Costa ahead at the chicane, fortunately not losing position. This incident, though, would cost him a potential podium in the end, with a 10-second time penalty demoting him from second to fifth at the chequered flag.
Despite moving up to third in the standings, Mortara still sits a hefty 25 points off championship leader Mitch Evans, with seven rounds to go in the season.
Winners: Jaguar
The Monaco E-Prix weekend has always been a happy hunting ground for Jaguar in the Gen3 era. It’s also certain that a good weekend in the Principality sets you up very well for a championship bid. Irrespective of the outcome.
Such has been the case for Jaguar this weekend. It was also the case in 2024, when Evans and Nick Cassidy took home a 1-2 that truly kickstarted their run for a maiden constructors’ title, and their own drivers’ championship bids.
The line-up of Evans and da Costa this season has been the most prolific, as both drivers are the only repeat winners in Season 12, and Monaco only reflected the high confidence the team were running on.
Both drivers made it to the duels in Round 9 and 10, with da Costa securing a best starting position of second, while neither driver qualified below eighth all weekend. However, the races in Monaco proved just how strong the Jaguar package is in Season 12.
Taking attack mode before the Pit Boost stage has often cost drivers badly in Season 12. Yet, da Costa managed to overtake race leader Ticktum before opening up almost a six-second gap at the front, and emerging in the lead after his Pit Boost stop.
Despite being overtaken by de Vries, Evans and Ticktum, the Portuguese driver still remained in the fight for third, not losing too much time to the Cupra Kiro driver ahead.
While this fight ended in tears for da Costa, his left front tyre was sheared off by the controversial incident on the penultimate lap, the exemplary Jaguar pace was more than evident.
Round 10 on Sunday finally brought about a redemption for da Costa, despite the opening lap spin at the Nouvelle chicane. Utilising six minutes of attack mode helped him ascend to what was a brief race lead, before he settled for third ahead of teammate Evans, capping off an excellent weekend for the Big Cat.
Evans took home 30 points after another silky-smooth weekend, as he now leads the championship by 19 points over Oliver Rowland, while Jaguar holds a 24-point advantage in the constructors’ standings. A job very well done in the Principality, indeed!
Losers: Porsche
For a team as metronomic and efficient as Porsche, the Monaco E-Prix weekend could arguably be termed their worst in many seasons. It only stretched their podium drought in the Principality, and marked a 100th race to forget.
It was a massive crash down to earth for Müller, who found himself in the midst of the ‘Monaco melees’ as he would put it after Round 9. His incident on Lap 13 proved the costliest, after misjudging the braking into Rascasse and smashing into the rear of teammate Pascal Wehrlein ahead.
While Wehrlein would limp around for an entire lap and lose valuable time, Müller spent the same lap running without a front nose cone, as both drivers dropped out of the points in the race. The Swiss racer received 10 seconds in penalties and was also the affected party in another incident with Vergne at the final corner.
Round 10 on Sunday may have begun with optimism, with Müller even taking the lead after using six minutes of attack mode early on, but this would only be fleeting. He would eventually finish sixth after Jake Dennis received a post-race penalty, ensuring Porsche didn’t leave Monaco empty-handed.
As for Wehrlein, it was a double header to forget, as he was nowhere close to the points in Round 10, and saw his advantage in the standings shredded. The German now sits fourth in the standings, having started the weekend in the lead.
Winner: Full-time rookies
The streets of Monaco have always thrown up plenty of surprises over the years, sometimes with surprise faces on the podium. In Season 12, it was the turn of full-time rookies Pepe Martí and Felipe Drugovich to take to the rostrum for the first time in their fledgling Formula E careers.
For the Brazilian in the Andretti, this was a bountiful weekend, as he finished second and fourth overall, scoring a total of 30 points across the weekend, the joint highest alongside Evans.
It was all about utilising the attack mode strongly in both races, with Drugovich and Martí both climbing up the order and staying out of incidents on track. The Cupra Kiro driver was among the last to take his Pit Boost stops, emerging behind Drugovich in a strong seventh.
Martí would make light work of Buemi and Drugovich, with the Brazilian slightly down on energy compared to his competitors, before taking advantage of the Ticktum/da Costa tangle to take his first-ever Formula E podium finish.
Drugovich would only carry his form from Saturday into Sunday, qualifying fifth and running a strong race to stay towards the top of the leaderboard. The highlight of his race was a double overtake on Mortara and Müller into the winding Beau Rivage section, as he snatched second on the track with attack mode.
While he wouldn’t be able to stop race winner Rowland in his tracks, Drugovich still took home a stellar second, his first Formula E podium. Martí, though, had a tougher day in the office, a collision with Cassidy at Rascasse corner putting paid to his chances of repeating his Saturday comeback drive.
Loser: Jake Dennis and Dan Ticktum
Would the Monaco E-Prix have brought about a major shift in the Andretti camp? Perhaps, this may have been the order of the day after the contrasting weekends both drivers experienced in the Principality.
For the entire weekend, Drugovich looked as though he was head and shoulders ahead of his more experienced teammate Dennis. An early incident at the Nouvelle chicane with Cassidy ended his race on Lap 3, while a smoother drive to sixth on Sunday was halted by a post-race penalty for an incident with Ticktum at the Hairpin.
It marked a strong drop off in form for a driver who started the season with victory in São Paulo, and looked to be one of the prime contenders for the championship after the opening weekends. As opined on the latest episode of the DIVEBOMB Formula E Podcast, this weekend may have marked a big shift in the team dynamic at Andretti in Season 12.
As for Ticktum, Monaco marked yet another weekend of ‘what could have been’, as his brace of pole positions eventually amounted to no points in either race. The controversial incident with da Costa towards the end of Round 9 certainly left him fuming, as he would argue his case of not moving under braking into the chicane.
While the 33-second penalty cost him a podium on Saturday, it was a five-second penalty and the aforementioned incident with Dennis that took him out of the reckoning for points on Sunday.
With only 28 points to his name, Ticktum sits far down in 14th in the standings. Time is running out for the Briton, as he is currently racing for his Formula E future, and he will know a big result isn’t too far away to rejuvenate his campaign.
Winner: Oliver Rowland
It would be an unbelievable stat to mention, but Rowland has currently scored all his points from the six podiums in Season 12. But there was marked assurance in his victory in Round 10, a symbol that marks his charge towards making it two championships in a row.
While the Saturday race went disastrously, as he finished well outside the top 10, qualifying seventh for Sunday’s Round 10 put him in a great position to make up positions. While the Nissan man initially played it cool and let the rest use up their energy, it was the crucial six-minute attack mode that fetched him big rewards.
Taking the extra power on Lap 20, Rowland sliced through the field, passing Evans, Ticktum and Drugovich with relative ease. He would then follow Mortara past second-placed da Costa, before the crucial race-winning overtake on the Mahindra man sealed the deal on Lap 23.
It’s been a mixed season for the reigning champion, but this victory in Monaco, coupled with back-to-back podiums in Berlin, puts him in an excellent position for the second half of the season. While Rowland sits 19 points off Evans in the standings, two good races for the Briton could see him get closer and make a strong bid for a second consecutive title.
Loser: Nick Cassidy
If there was one man who would be extremely distraught after the Monaco double header, it would most certainly be Cassidy. The Citroën man would be at a loss of answers to see where he could find performance around the streets of Monaco, where he has been on the podium at every season in the Gen3 era.
Down in 16th, Cassidy would have still counted himself strongly in the fight for a strong points score, given his drives at this venue in the past. However, the incident with Dennis at the Nouvelle chicane put paid to his race on Saturday.
Although the New Zealander recovered, he would be one of eight drivers receiving time penalties during the race, with the five-second time penalty almost putting paid to his race as well.
However, he would receive an elevation in the order after the race had ended, with stewards finding Ticktum, Müller and Maximilian Günther at fault for several in-race incidents. He would eventually end up ninth, taking home two points after all the chaos in Monaco was sorted.
Round 10, though, wouldn’t bring home the same level of luck, as Cassidy found himself the victim of Martí’s unsuccessful dive into Rascasse corner, with both ending up in the wall.
It was a frustrating weekend, all in all, as Citroën fell to seventh in the constructors’ standings, after the likes of Andretti and Envision Racing had stronger race weekends in store. They would need to watch their backs, though, with Cupra Kiro lurking only 17 points off in eighth.
Winner: Lola ABT Yamaha
For one of Formula E’s newest outfits, it’s been an extremely difficult start to life in Season 12. Lola have showcased strong pace early in the races, with both Lucas di Grassi and Zane Maloney briefly running 1-2 in Berlin, while the Barbadian driver even made it to two duels over the course of the weekend.
While Berlin was arguably a precursor, Monaco brought true rewards to the two cars in yellow and blue. Staying out of trouble, both di Grassi and Maloney eventually ended up on the fringes of the points.
However, with as many as four drivers slapped post-race penalties, including provisional podium-sitter Ticktum, elevated di Grassi well into the points. The constant updates were reflected by Lola’s social media admin, with a blank post adding the positions, ‘P11, P10, P9, P8’, before crossing out the first three.
It was an accurate representation of the evolving picture that day, with the final finishing positions revealed over four hours after the chequered flag had been flown.
A similar scenario unfolded in the second race of the weekend, with six drivers receiving penalties in all, while both drivers were promoted into the points this time after running clean races. Di Grassi scored his first points of the season, marking the second consecutive season in which every full-time driver scored atleast a single point.
Loser: DS Penske
Despite scoring more points than the previous weekend in Berlin, Monaco marked one of the scrappiest races for those in black and gold.
While Günther initially qualified up in third and set himself up with a bid to take home big points, his race unravelled after the Pit Boost stages, where he slipped down the order.
Eventually, he would run on the fringes of the points, and a late race incident with Müller earned him a time penalty, demoting the German from eighth to 10th in the order. Consolation for Günther was the point for the fastest lap, though, as the team still managed to take home double points with Taylor Barnard up in seventh.
However, it was the Sunday race that saw the duo at the centre of attention. Barnard’s early incident at the final corner forced Norman Nato to retire, earning him a 10-second penalty, while another isolated incident with Vergne’s Citroën added a further 10 seconds to his tab.
Barnard’s late crash into Portier corner summed up the team’s race, with the stewards electing to impose a 10-place grid drop at the Sanya E-Prix instead, with Barnard unable to serve the penalties.
Similarly, Günther would earn five seconds on his penalty tab after making contact with Sébastien Buemi at the Hairpin, while speeding under full course yellows earned him a further five seconds. He will also be carrying on a five-place grid drop to the upcoming Sanya E-Prix, at the stewards’ discretion.
Winner: The streets of Monaco
While the Formula E fans were treated to two breathless Monaco E-Prix riddled with incidents and surprises, there was even more on offer for the championship in the Principality.
Several Formula One drivers made the short journey down to the paddock in Monaco, including reigning champion Lando Norris, Williams’ Carlos Sainz, Ollie Bearman, and the Audi duo of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg. Alpine boss Flavio Briatore and ex-Red Bull boss Christian Horner were also in attendance, amidst the wave of celebrities.
As if this wasn’t enough, former McLaren race winner David Coulthard took a test run in the Gen4 concept car around the streets of Monaco, shaken by its sheer acceleration and the speed in the tunnel. “It’s an experience nobody in racing has had before,” the Scotsman would mention, full of praise for the Gen4 machine.
The buzz around Gen4 would only intensify after Coulthard’s demo runs, with several drivers already praising the upcoming regulations and creating a positive outlook for the championship’s future.
