Winners and Losers: Jakarta E-Prix
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- Jun 23
- 11 min read
Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Elodie O’Callaghan
Formula E’s return to Jakarta after a one-year hiatus was marred by a dusty street circuit that punished drivers veering off the racing line. With racing difficult, and drivers chancing their arm at making overtakes, it set the tone for an exciting race weekend. DIVEBOMB brings you the winners and losers from the Indonesian capital.
Winner: Dan Ticktum
Could there have been a more overwhelming winner from the Jakarta E-Prix weekend? None would have been happier in the heart of the Indonesian capital than Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum, who found himself on top of a Formula E podium for the first time in 60 races.
The London native hadn’t quite hit top gear in Formula E until the Monaco E-Prix weekend, when he topped both practice sessions ahead of the double header. Victory was the final step in the progress path for Kiro, who had only just confirmed their line-up of Ticktum and David Beckmann in the lead-up to the season opener at São Paulo in December.
It has been a steep ascent to the top, and Jakarta was the affirmation of Cupra Kiro, atleast in Ticktum’s hands, a race winner. The Porsche powertrain, coupled with a driver of Ticktum’s calibre, emerged on top at Jakarta, sparking widespread celebrations in the garage.
Ticktum delivered a truly coming-of-age drive. Starting fifth, he made up a spot on Nick Cassidy’s Jaguar to sit fourth. From there on, he took advantage of Taylor Barnard going deep as he activated attack mode, before being the biggest recipient of the Jake Dennis - Nyck de Vries clash (more on both later). Fending off a hungry Edoardo Mortara on the final five tours of the circuit, Ticktum duly sealed the victory by all of 0.371 seconds.
Losers: Oliver Rowland
In 2025, Oliver Rowland continually raised the bar for himself and his rivals. He has just streaked away with the championship lead throughout the season, rarely dropping points or putting a foot wrong. He’s been the only truly consistent podium sitter this season. Because of this, the threshold for what is considered a “bad” weekend for Rowland is incredibly low.
Rowland struggled massively in qualifying, uncharacteristic for a driver who always manages to find himself high up the grid, regardless of car performance. He would fail to progress from the duels, with Nissan citing both a difficult track surface and traffic for the underperformance. Rowland would line up 16th for the race.
When the lights went out, the Brit started making quick progress and it seemed that once again, the cream was rising to the top. His race took a turn when he reached the DS Penske of Max Guenther. As he attempted a move down the inside into the hairpin, he made slight contact with Guenther, causing the German driver to drift wide and into the wall. The stewards gave Rowland a five-second time penalty.
Rowland would continue his progress despite the penalty, having sustained no serious damage for the contact. He crossed the finish line in seventh, with the penalty dropping him back to tenth. He would leave Indonesia with one point to show for, narrowly avoiding what would have been only his third pointless finish of the season. Rowland can still wrap the championship up next time out in Berlin, but dropping points in Jakarta may delay his celebrations.
Winner: Nico Müller
For most of 2025, Andretti’s Nico Müller hasn’t experienced the rich vein of form that saw him close out his 2024 season for ABT Cupra. In a move that was “high up on his wishlist” for season 11, Müller’s struggles have mirrored those of his predecessors alongside teammate Jake Dennis.
While the initial race weekends were littered with DNFs and lower points finishes, Müller finally broke through in Miami, finishing fourth, before backing it up with fifth in Monaco.
With teammate Dennis’ form cooling off in the past few races, Müller has stepped up to the mantle. Now comfortable with his Andretti, he made the best use of attack mode on a rainy day in Shanghai, moving up the order to finish sixth at the flag.
Once again, he would move up the order in Jakarta, taking advantage of those ahead making errors and mistakes on a dusty Jakarta circuit. Eventually, he would climb further up the order, with teammate Dennis facing troubles during the Full Course Yellow (FCY) period, while race leader de Vries pulled off the track.
Sitting fourth by the flag, Müller once again benefitted from a penalty for Envision Racing’s Sébastien Buemi ahead, bringing home a maiden podium for Andretti, and only the second of his Formula E career so far.
With a haul of 23 points from the past two weekends, the Andretti man is slowly gathering momentum, ensuring his season ends on a strong note.
Losers: Jake Dennis
The other big victim of the lead battle coming undone was Müller’s teammate, pole-sitter Jake Dennis. The Briton, who led from the beginning and held back the charging Mahindra of de Vries, saw his race fall away right in front of his eyes.
Leading from pole, Dennis faced a stern challenge from de Vries in the chasing Mahindra. While he did well to fend off any chances of overtaking onto lap 20, the fate wouldn’t be the same one lap on.
Dennis lost portions of his front wing as his Dutch rival came across the track in a harsh manoeuvre, just about defending the lead. With parts of his front wing broken, the Andretti man had to trundle around in second under the first FCY.
However, once the first FCY had been removed, a problem with his limiter meant Dennis fell all the way from a podium position to 18th on the road, before managing to resolve the issue and get going once again.
He would only gain one position from de Vries’ DNF, finishing 17th for the third race in succession. This time, however, it was a big miss for Dennis, and a certain podium lost to firm up his and Andretti’s middling seasons so far, before the final series of double-headers in July.
Winner: McLaren
McLaren’s season has been incredibly hot and cold. Generally their pace is good, but some really dreadful performances, at seemingly unexpected moments, have held the team back from truly competing this year. Rookie Taylor Barnard has brought home the vast majority of points, whilst veteran teammate Sam Bird has struggled to get to grips with the Gen3 EVO car.
The McLaren had very strong one-lap pace. Sam Bird missed out on the duels and started eleventh, but Taylor Barnard managed to make it all the way to the duels final, defeated by Andretti’s Jake Dennis in the fight for pole. Regardless, P2 was an incredibly strong point to lead off from.
Barnard lost positions off the start line, but still remained within the top six. Barnard made a terrible mistake as he took his first attack mode, drifting wide on the dirty track surface and closely brushing the wall. He got shuffled back to the minor points positions. Barnard would eventually fight his way back to a respectable P6 finish.
On his race, Barnard stated: “it was a positive weekend overall. We finished P6 in the race and qualified P2. Coming into the weekend I had limited confidence, knowing that I had to learn another circuit, this low grip is very different compared to what I’m used to.”
Meanwhile, Barnard’s teammate Sam Bird had a quieter race. After starting eleventh, he methodically made his way through the field, and was in the fight as the attrition of the race took many drivers victim. He could have fought for better points, but he had what the team described as “an issue with the attack mode” and wasn’t able to punch any higher. He came home just behind his teammate in P7. After some tumultuous and inconsistent weekends, a double points finish is just what team papaya needed.
Losers: Stellantis
You don’t often notice us bringing a manufacturer into this section of our article. But so poor was the day for both Stellantis outfits (Maserati and DS Penske), as three of the four cars failed to finish the race, while Vergne in 16th experienced a moment of going airborne early in the race, necessitating a trip through the pits.
His teammate Maximilian Günther, the form man last time Formula E visited Jakarta, found himself at the receiving end of an overtake by Oliver Rowland. A late move from the Nissan man put the German into the barriers, causing drivetrain trouble, capping off what had already become a miserable day for the DS Penske outfit.
Maserati, on the other hand, experienced technical failures during the race. Both drivers were warned by the team of potential front powertrain issues, experiencing overheating during the race. Hughes was the first of the Maserati cars to suffer trouble, pulling over to the side of turn 1 and triggering the first FCY of the race.
Only moments later, as the grid went back to green flag running, teammate Stoffel Vandoorne experienced what he termed a brake failure, suffering a heavy impact into the wall at turn 16. While the Belgian was fortunate to walk away unharmed, it capped off another torrid showing for Maserati.
While DS Penske still remain third in the constructors’ standings, a failure to score saw Maserati fall to eighth, losing out to Andretti and Jaguar on the day.
Winner: Edoardo Mortara
Edoardo Mortara and Mahindra turned up in Jakarta with a quick car yet again. It has been a very strong season for the Indian outfit already, far exceeding expectations. Going into Jakarta, they stood fifth in the teams’ championship, and both Mortara and teammate Nyck De Vries are fighting for the top ten in the drivers’ championship.
Mahindra were particularly quick on one-lap pace, and Mortara would line up sixth for the race. He would quickly make his way to the front, and would battle within the podium places for most of the race.
Late in the race, he had an attack mode advantage over race leader Dan Ticktum, and it looked as though Mortara would easily surge past the British driver to take his first win since 2022, however, a late full course yellow meant he couldn’t make use of the extra power and four wheel drive granted to him by the attack mode.
Despite this, he harried Ticktum in the closing laps, but unfortunately for the Swiss driver, an opportunity to pass just never materialised. He crossed the line just 0.3s behind Ticktum. Mortara was disappointed to miss out on the win, but a second place finish was still incredible for him and his team, and there were jubilant scenes in his garage following the race.
Losers: Nyck de Vries
On a fine day for Mahindra, Nyck de Vries had the best possible opportunity to make it a double-podium finish for the Indian outfit, and claw back lost ground in the championship. However, his race unfurled just after half distance, the Dutchman eventually pulling off on the exit of turn 7 to surrender the lead of the race.
Even before this, his race had taken a major hit. Running second, with only a minute of extra 50 kW of power from attack mode, de Vries moved past on the start/finish straight onto lap 21, but misjudged how far ahead he was.
Chopping across Dennis to defend position, de Vries made contact with the Andretti’s front wing, splattering debris on the run into turn 1, and copping a ten-second penalty for his actions.
While de Vries attempted to pull away from the rest, in a bid to negate his penalty, a technical defect late in the race saw him pull off in the run-off at turn 7. While de Vries believes he had the pace to win, it remains a case of “what could have been”, with the Mahindra man running over four seconds ahead of Ticktum before being forced to retire from the race.
With Dennis suffering an issue off the first FCY period, de Vries' retiring from the race perhaps soured Mortara’s podium, ruining what could have been a massive gain on their rivals, McLaren and DS Penske ahead.
Winner: Envision
Envision Racing have been a far cry from the team that took the Season 9 teams’ championship title. In Season 11, they sit second-last in the championship, only ahead of the brand-new Lola team. Their veteran lineup in Sébastien Buemi and Robin Frijns have been consistently frustrated by the team’s inability to compete as they have in the past.
That being said, Envision have started to pick up some pace. They went from just one points finish in the first four races, to scoring in every single race since Miami. They also managed to win the biggest race of them all, with Buemi reigning victorious on the streets of Monaco. Momentum has been on the green team’s side, and they certainly carried that into Jakarta.
Robin Frijns did not get off to a good start in practice. A suspension failure led to a hard crash with the barrier, meaning he went into qualifying with very little track running. In qualifying, a mistake on his fast lap meant he would line up dead last on the grid, in P22. Buemi made the duels, and would ultimately start the race in seventh.
Buemi had really good pace in the race, and he was competing for the podium positions throughout. He would ultimately cross the line in third. However, unfortunately for him, contact with Edoardo Mortara led to a five second penalty for Buemi, dropping the Swiss driver to eighth. Disappointing, given the circumstances of the race, but considering Envision’s season as a whole, a decent haul of points.
Robin Frijns’ race was quieter, but he surged his way through the field, using good strategy and with a quick car underneath him, he managed to come home just behind him teammate in the order, finishing ninth. Overall, Envision scored seven points, including an extra point as Buemi recorded the fastest lap. This result further extends the gap between themselves and Lola at the bottom of the standings.
Losers: Pascal Wehrlein
Reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein is Oliver Rowland’s closest competitor in the title race and going into Jakarta, was the only other driver who had scored more than 100 points this season. He trailed the British driver by 68 points, not an odds-on favourite, but by no means out of the fight. Two difficult races for Rowland could mean Wehrlein is back in the championship battle, as long as he could capitalise on this eventuality.
Wehrlein, similarly to Rowland, struggled in qualifying. He only managed a 17th place starting spot, serendipitously lining up directly next to his championship rival. Using an unconventional attack mode strategy, Wehrlein surged through the field early, more or less in lockstep with Rowland the whole time.
When the two drivers reached the peripheral points positions, they began to battle each other. Wehrlein made a lunge down the inside of Rowland on lap 27, but the dirty surface off-line meant he lost grip and slid into the side of the Brit. He failed to make the move stick and lost a position to McLaren’s Taylor Barnard in the process.
The German driver would come home in 11th, failing to capitalise on Rowland’s difficult race. It all but seals Rowland’s name on the title, as Wehrlein will not realistically be able to regain enough points going into the final weekends in Berlin and London.
Comentários