Winners and Losers: Monaco E Prix
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- May 9
- 11 min read
Updated: May 28
Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Elodie O’Callaghan
Monaco’s first double-header saw plenty of drivers find crucial form, while some failed to hit top gear ahead of a crucial stretch in Formula E’s season 11. Vyas and Elodie take you through the winners and losers from the Monaco E Prix weekend.
Winner: Oliver Rowland
Oliver Rowland is having the best season of his Formula E career and it shows no sign of slowing down. He went into Monaco with the championship lead, having won two of the first four races, and having earned a second-place finish at round three in Jeddah.
In round six, Rowland showed good pace, but the Andretti drivers of Nico Müller and Jake Dennis, along with Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries, stood between him and the top step of the podium. He fell to fourth place after being the last of the front runners to take Attack Mode.
However, this conversely meant he would be the last with Attack Mode remaining, and he used that advantage to his full benefit. Using the four-wheel drive and 50 kWh of extra power, he carved his way through his opponents, reaching the lead with time to spare, and managed to create a two-second gap by the chequered flag. Rowland took his third victory of 2025 on the streets of Monte Carlo, reigniting the form he has enjoyed all season.
Race two was far more chaotic for the British driver. His race was defined by lap 21, where he was running second behind DS Penske’s Jean-Éric Vergne. He lunged around the outside into the Nouvelle Chicane, going too deep and cutting the corner.
He got the place from Vergne, but amidst all their fighting, de Vries, along with Envision’s Sébastien Buemi, were brought into the fight. Later, Rowland ceded the position to Vergne as he activated Attack Mode, but this squabbling meant Rowland couldn’t quite recapture the victory, coming home second.
Overall, Rowland leaves Monte Carlo with two podiums and an extended lead in the driver’s championship, the Brit now ahead by a whopping 48 points after just seven races. A very successful weekend for the boy from Barnsley.
Losers: McLaren
McLaren arguably fell back in the championship race, squandering a strong position heading into the Monaco E Prix weekend. Taylor Barnard took a second pole of the year, marking what would be the Woking-based marque’s only points of the entire double header.
There was no doubt McLaren were looking to make a mark in Monaco, just days after the news of the papaya manufacturer heading into Formula E’s twilight was announced. Sitting pretty in the championship in third, it was all to play for, heading into an important stretch of the season.
Yet, McLaren’s weekend unfolded as it went along. While Barnard led for a significant portion of the race, he was cycled further back after the drivers took their Pit Boost. As Barnard attempted to make his way around Wehrlein’s Porsche at the hairpin, he was shuffled into the barriers. Having reversed out, the rookie saw the chequered flag down in 16th, while Sam Bird just missed out on the points in 11th.
Round 7 on Sunday proved even more disastrous for the team in orange: Barnard struggled in the wet conditions in qualifying, managing only 16th on the grid. Bird, on the other hand, escaped unhurt after a nasty crash into Sainte-Devote, the team putting together a massive repair job to allow him to start the race.
However, Bird’s hastily-repaired McLaren couldn’t make much headway, finishing last of the classified runners, while Barnard was limited to 16th on the road. A disappointing start to a crucial month of May for the team.
The championship implications proved greater, as Barnard slipped to fourth in the standings, a whopping 61 points off leader Rowland, while McLaren slid down to fifth in the constructors’ standings, losing vital ground after an excellent start to the season.
Winner: Sébastien Buemi
Sébastien Buemi’s season had been going terribly before Monaco. He finished seventh in Sao Paulo in December, netting him six points. However, since then, he had failed to score a single point. The Swiss driver’s best result in those preceding races was a 12th-place finish in Jeddah. This left Envision rock bottom of the teams’ standings, and for the team that won the teams’ championship just two seasons prior, these results were simply unacceptable.
In race one in Monaco, it seemed this horrible run of form was only set to continue, with the Swiss driver being classified in a lowly 19th place. However, turning up to a damp track the next day for race two, the script flipped.
Buemi took advantage of the battling between Rowland, De Vries, and Vergne to surreptitiously take the lead, and from there he simply started to extend the gap. By the end of the race, he was four seconds clear of Rowland in second, a gap of proportions rarely seen in the ultra-competitive series that is Formula E.
Buemi’s win was his third on Monaco’s streets, his first in the principality since 2017. Additionally, it was his first Formula E victory in 78 races, having last stood on the top step six years ago, at the New York ePrix in 2019. Buemi questioned if he would ever win again, but his dominant performance proved the Season 2 champion still has what it takes to compete at the sharp end of the field.
Losers: Nico Müller
Nico Müller has had a difficult season since moving to Andretti. He has been a step behind teammate Jake Dennis, both in overall pace and results. He had recorded just two points finishes in the five races before Monaco. He has also grappled with two DNFs.
In race one, Müller started 14th. He had to make an early pitstop after sustaining a puncture in the opening laps. Later, Müller would serve his mandatory pitstop to activate Pit Boost. This stop would prove hugely fortunate, as the Full Course Yellow was deployed as he was making his stop. Once the pitstop cycle was completed, Müller would find himself far in the lead of the race.
It looked like Müller had the race all-but sewn up, but unfortunately, due to a fault with the Pit Boost system, he was limited by the amount of energy he had for the rest of the race. As such, his pace was dramatically slower than those behind, and he slipped through the pack, ultimately finishing fifth- a great result from 14th, but disappointing in the context of the race.
In race two, the Swiss driver only managed to qualify 20th out of 22 drivers. In the race, he was caught out by the damp conditions, running wide at Massenet corner and hitting the wall. He sustained terminal damage, and his car had to be recovered by the marshals at Casino Square.
Ten points from the weekend is traditionally a good haul for Müller, but given the context of the races and the good pace he showed, only coming away with ten points is a huge missed opportunity for him and his Andretti team.
Winner: Nick Cassidy
One man leaving Monaco relieved was Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy. The New Zealander finally found form to revive what had been a torrid season so far, claiming a podium to keep Jaguar’s run of podiums at Monaco’s Grand Prix layout going.
While it was far from the perfect showing the British team had managed to achieve in 2024, it was an excellent drive by Cassidy to leave Monaco with silverware. Having qualified 19th for round six, the Jaguar man went on to take both his attack modes early in the race, a conservative approach to prevent a repeat of the events that unfolded in Miami.
However, this approach didn’t pay off, as Cassidy dropped like a stone without attack mode and the extra power at his disposal, falling from the race lead to 18th on the road.
Learning from his setback, the former Monaco winner attempted a more aggressive strategy in round seven on Sunday. Despite qualifying down in 14th, he took only two minutes of attack mode on lap 9, choosing to settle into a rhythm as the race progressed.
Taking six minutes of attack mode onto lap 21, Cassidy delivered a crucial final stint, maximising his attack mode to eventually nibble past Nyck de Vries into Mirabeau corner on lap 24, just as his attack mode ended. The Jaguar man then defended his position sternly from a charging da Costa, doing just enough to take his first podium of the year, ahead of a crucial phase for himself and Jaguar’s respective seasons.
Losers: Mitch Evans
Mitch Evans went into Season 11 as one of the favourites for the title, having gotten so close in previous years. His Jaguar team were more competitive than ever in the preceding seasons, and was intent on finding the last tenth needed to win the championship.
Since the Sao Paulo ePrix, Evans failed to score a single point in the four races leading up to Monaco. He recorded a P16, P19, and two DNFs, with powertrain reliability struggles, involvement in crashes, and sheer lack of speed punctuating a potential championship-contending season.
Monaco, as always, is a unicorn race on the calendar. Each struggling driver was intent on changing the narrative here. Evans would have been no different. However, this would not lay the backdrop to the inception of his comeback story.
Evans was fighting well inside the top ten in race one, with decent pace. Unfortunately, the unreliability of the Jaguar powertrain reared its ugly head once again, the Kiwi forced to retire just halfway into the race, on lap 15.
In race two, while teammate Cassidy was battling for a podium, Evans was mired at the very back of the pack, generally unable to extract himself from the bottom five runners. He came home again without points. A P18 bookending yet another sour weekend in Season 11 for Mitch Evans.
Winner: Nyck de Vries
Nyck de Vries was undoubtedly one of the biggest winners in the Principality, grabbing his best points tally across a weekend since the 2022 Diriyah E Prix. The Dutchman hit top gear across all sessions, finishing third and sixth in the dry practice sessions on Saturday morning, before making the semi-final in qualifying for round six.
A strong start saw him jump past Dan Ticktum's Cupra Kiro into Sainte-Devote, sitting in the podium positions when the full course yellow was called out for Mitch Evans's stricken Jaguar. Despite losing position to Dennis on the restart, the Mahindra man kept a cool head and managed his race.
Gaining back positions during the Pit Boost and attack mode sequence, de Vries fended off the charging Andretti of Dennis, who made every attempt to pass him into La Rascasse, as his attack mode ran out. This kept de Vries at bay, and with Dennis’ incoming five-second penalty, the Dutchman grabbed his first podium in three seasons when the chequered flag fell.
De Vries kept up his pace in the wet race too, qualifying on the front row after making it to the semi-finals in a strange qualifying session. In the wet race, he maintained his position in the opening stages. However, as the race entered its closing stages, the Mahindra faded away, losing positions to those in attack mode, de Vries eventually finishing fifth by the flag.
Even still, it marked a spectacular weekend for de Vries and Mahindra, the Dutchman catapulting into the top five of the drivers’ standings while the Indian manufacturer moved up to third in the constructors’ standings.
Losers: Dan Ticktum
Dan Ticktum and Cupra Kiro turned up to Monaco with impressive pace, even topping the timings in both free practice one and two. As such, expectations were high going into the races. In round six, Ticktum wasn’t quite able to convert his pace into big points, though a seventh-place finish still netted the team six points.
In qualifying for race two, however, cracks started to show in his Cupra Kiro team. They sent Ticktum out to qualify against Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries in the wrong powertrain mode. His car was programmed into the mode for the group stages, rather than the duels.
As such, he had 50 kWh less power and only rear-wheel drive, rather than the four-wheel drive permitted for the duels. With this underpowered mode, he was crushed by the Mahindra driver. Ticktum was understandably furious, harshly criticising his team for the mistake on and off the radio.
With this issue in qualifying, it meant he would start seventh for the race. The Briton was challenging the top five in the early stages of the race. On lap ten, Ticktum moved to the inside into Mirabeau corner to defend from Nick Cassidy, losing control and hitting the inside barrier. He then veered into the runoff on the outside of the corner.
Despite spinning his Cupra Kiro round swiftly, Ticktum could only manage 15th on the road, failing to come away with points on the day. He’d had great pace during the Monaco ePrix weekend, but messy races, team mistakes, and some bad luck meant he could not convert that pace into major points.
Winner: Monaco
For the first time, Formula E held two races at the Monaco Street Circuit. Following the overwhelming success of moving to the full Grand Prix layout in 2021, the all-electric racing series now took the move to convert their flagship weekend into a double header, making for double the action and double the excitement for the weekend.
Monaco is a particularly important venue for Formula E, being the major showpiece event of the year. While it could be argued if two Monaco winners devalue the worth and prestige of the moniker ‘Monaco winner’, the converse argument would entail Monaco in itself being the main spectacle, and that two races would only enhance the value of Formula E’s showpiece event.
Moreover, the changing weather conditions only added an element of thrill to the proceedings. It was almost as though two completely different races took place on the streets of the Principality. On a day when Pit Boost and attack mode shook up the order, Rowland showed his class, while Buemi utilised every ounce of experience to show just why he is the king of Monaco’s streets.
The rain only added an extra element to what was an enthralling race, giving the audiences just a glimpse into how tricky the Formula E cars were to handle in the rain, with multiple drivers caught out by the tricky braking zone into the Nouvelle chicane on Sunday.
If this is what Formula E has in store for the future, then there’s no doubt the pundits and the drivers would be excited for more double headers in Monaco for the foreseeable future.
Losers: Maserati
Coming into their home race weekend in 2025, Maserati were certainly left wanting more at the end of the Monaco double header.
Having lost vital time in free practice, Stoffel Vandoorne managed to stage a comeback, finishing in the points in both races. The Belgian, a former Monaco winner himself, managed to qualify 13th for round six, as he and teammate Jake Hughes suffered big time due to cold tyres during qualifying.
However, Vandoorne managed to salvage ninth in the race, using a smart strategy of taking six minutes of attack mode on his first hit, before taking the final two minutes on his way to securing ninth on the road. Hughes, meanwhile, suffered a five-second penalty for making contact with Lola ABT Yamaha’s Zane Maloney during the race. He eventually managed to secure only 14th on the road.
Things did not change for round seven either; both cars slipped back in the pecking order after qualifying up. Vandoorne managed a stellar fifth on the grid for the race, while Hughes started 12th on the grid.
The Briton suffered another penalty, having made contact with Cupra Kiro racer David Beckmann. While this didn’t affect his finishing position, it remains a weekend of wondering what could have been for the Maseratis. Tyre temperature struggles affected both drivers, with Vandoorne only claiming the final point in tenth.
Maserati will certainly be looking to bounce back and reclaim ground lost in the battle for top placings on the grid, in what is a busy period of the season.
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