Winners and Losers: Tokyo E-Prix
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- May 21
- 12 min read
Updated: May 28
Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Elodie O’Callaghan
It was a weekend of contrasting fortunes down at several Formula E teams in an exciting Tokyo E-Prix double header, the first for the all-electric series in the Japanese capital. But whose stock rose during the Tokyo weekend? And who had a weekend to forget? Vyas and Elodie bring all you need to know from the Tokyo E-Prix.
Winner: Oliver Rowland
Could there have been a happier man around the streets of Tokyo during the race weekend? Perhaps not. Oliver Rowland left Tokyo with a smile a mile wide on his face. Maybe as wide as his championship lead? That’s for you to ponder.
Securing a win and a runner-up spot for the second weekend in a row, Rowland has cemented his authority at the top of the Formula E championship standings. His latest haul takes him a whopping 77 points clear of the rest, up from 48 ahead of the Tokyo double-header.
Talks have already surfaced of Rowland sealing the title early, with a 116-point lead after the Jakarta E-Prix in June appearing a realistic target for the Briton.
Season 11 has been all about ticking off milestones for Rowland, and the Nissan supremo delivered an utterly special weekend in Tokyo, in front of the team’s top bosses, while giving the home fans plenty to cheer.
Heartbreak in season 10 turned into ecstasy this time, as Rowland nearly swept the weekend, taking both poles (inheriting pole for round 8 after a rained-out qualifying), leading for most of the weekend and taking one victory with a last-gasp pass on Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche into turn 15, his attack mode running out just after he’d made the move.
Only a red flag induced early in round 8 prevented Rowland from sweeping the weekend. Such was his dominance in Tokyo, and Formula E in 2025.
Losers: Norman Nato
Norman Nato has had a massively difficult Season 11, so far. Before Tokyo, he had scored just eleven points and languished in 19th in the drivers’ standings. This is all while his teammate Oliver Rowland has sprinted clear at the top, with a 77-point lead in the standings.
Nato has not struggled with qualifying, often making it far into the duels on any given weekend. However, he has massively struggled to convert those grid positions into points. He only has one points score this season, with eight points for finishing sixth in Miami, plus three points for his pole.
In Tokyo, the trend continued. Nato started round 8 in third, after qualifying was cancelled. This starting position was not representative of his true pace, and he faded to 15th at the flag. Nissan attributed his slow pace down to a “lack of grip,” though low grip was a problem for everyone, given the rainy conditions.
In race two, Nato lined up eighth, making it to the duels once again. However, the Frenchman was practically anonymous in the race, and damage sustained after contact relegated him to a disappointing 17th place finish, second last of those that finished the race. All the while, teammate Rowland put in another commanding performance to take his fourth win of the season.
This contrast between teammates is damning for Norman Nato. He will clearly need to figure out how to convert grid positions into points. The pace is there at times, but the race craft just is not, at the moment.
Winner: Stoffel Vandoorne
Maserati has made a habit of winning on the streets of Japan’s capital. The Italian marque took victory in Season 10 with a great drive by Max Guenther. In Season 11, the team returned with a new lineup and new team leader in Stoffel Vandoorne. The Season 8 Formula E champion, a seasoned race winner, has certainly rubbed off on his new team.
Following torrential downpours in the hours before race one, qualifying was cancelled. The starting grid was taken from the results of free practice two, with Vandoorne starting 14th, a tough starting spot on a traditionally difficult track to overtake.
The race started in similar conditions, with a large amount of water on the track. Vandoorne made it through the start with no issues, maintaining 14th. Maserati opted for a bold strategy, pitting Vandoorne to take his pit boost before anyone else. His team were gambling on an interruption to the race soon after his stop, which would bring Vandoorne right into contention. Consequently, that is exactly what happened.
As Vandoorne was leaving the pits, Max Gunther’s DS Penske ground to a halt, with the car’s LED system indicating that it was not electrically safe. As was in Formula E’s rule book, they threw an immediate red flag to neutralise the race, with the DS Penske remaining in a live electrical state after stopping on track.
Vandoorne was the only driver to have taken his mandatory Pit Boost stop, and as the red flag brought him right back to the rest of the drivers, he was in prime position to take the lead, once the pit stop cycle was completed.
Following the restart, he did just that, and following everyone else’s pit stops, Vandoorne led the race by a massive 25 seconds. It was not all plain sailing for the Belgian, however, with rain late in the race causing Vandoorne to slide into the barrier at turn two.
With his lead now slimmer, Vandoorne then reduced his pace, so as not to risk crashing again with such an overwhelming lead.
Despite Rowland charging in behind, the margin still proved too great for the Briton to close. Vandoorne picked up victory by eight seconds, a vast margin for Formula E’s usually tight-knit standards. The win nearly doubled his tally of points in 2025, and delivered Maserati silverware once again in Tokyo.
Losers: Jake Hughes
Jake Hughes joined Maserati at the start of Season 11, alongside Stoffel Vandoorne as part of their brand-new driver lineup. He massively impressed in his stint at McLaren, and Maserati were excited to have him.
Having failed to score any points since his podium in Jeddah, Hughes needed a good result in the Tokyo races. Given Maserati’s win at this track last year, the team were hopeful he could turn his fortunes around.
In round 8, while teammate Vandoorne benefitted from the red flag, Maserati kept Hughes out of the pits to join Vandoorne and help him fight his way up the grid. Acting as ‘rear gunner,’ Hughes stuck with Vandoorne and defended position, until he had to make his stop.
In the pits, a failure with the Pit Boost system cost Hughes 30 seconds, and he emerged from the pits in 19th, almost 30 seconds behind the pack. Maserati hoped for a safety car to bring him back into play, but there was no such respite, and he crossed the line a lap down.
In round 9, Maserati took a bold strategy with Hughes, leaving it late to take the second attack mode. This was risky, as a late safety car could ruin their race, which occurred.
With no added laps, it meant Hughes had one lap to use two minutes of Attack Mode. He slowed dramatically to serve the full Attack Mode before the chequered flag, to avoid copping a penalty. Hughes would come home 18th, and last of the classified drivers, almost a minute behind Nato in 17th.
The contrasts between Hughes and teammate Vandoorne’s weekends were stark. It was clear Hughes' results were largely out of misfortune, than sheer lack of pace. However, failing to score points while your teammate wins certainly puts Hughes down in this column.
Winner: Dan Ticktum
Dan Ticktum’s season has been highly successful so far. He has taken his Cupra Kiro car from being a backmarker to fighting for the major points places, with Tokyo being his best weekend to date.
In round 8, he started seventh. He battled well despite the tricky conditions, bringing the car home in fifth after a last-lap overtake on Mortara’s Mahindra. The valuable ten points he took home assisted Kiro in their fight against Lola Yamaha for 10th in the standings.
With a dry track in round 9, it allowed Ticktum to thrive. In qualifying, he secured the team’s best-ever starting spot, putting Kiro on the front row, although he lost pole to Rowland in the finals.
In the race, Rowland beat Ticktum on the line, the two maintaining their original positions after lap one. Ticktum stuck with Rowland, and on lap eight, after activating Attack Mode, he made a move for the lead. Diving into turn 1, Ticktum took the lead of the race, holding it for several laps before Pascal Wehrlein moved past.
The race was heading towards a dramatic conclusion, with four cars battling for the win. Rowland sat first, ahead of Wehrlein, Ticktum and Barnard. At points in the closing laps, the four were two wide, two rows deep. Ticktum held the advantage, as he had almost two percent more energy than those around him.
This intense racing came to a premature end, however, when Edoardo Mortara, who had caught up to the lead pack, made contact with Barnard’s rear right tyre, causing the young Brit to slide into the barrier, bringing out the safety car.
This also removed Ticktum’s energy advantage, as the safety car brought all the cars to an even playing field. While the race restarted with one lap to go, the positions remained largely unchanged, with Rowland winning ahead of Wehrlein and Ticktum in third.
Despite losing a potential victory, Ticktum and Cupra Kiro were nonetheless euphoric, with both driver and team scoring a maiden podium. The 15 points earned for third have now brought them within touching distance of Envision Racing for ninth in the standings.
Losers: David Beckmann
While it was jubilation and ecstasy on one side of the garage, the other side was left pondering for answers after yet another difficult weekend.
While Ticktum managed to nail Kiro’s maiden Formula E podium in round 9, teammate David Beckmann only managed to finish 13th at the flag. It marked his best finish for the season, but it certainly leaves plenty to ponder for the second Kiro racer.
While it is Beckmann’s first full season in the series, and it is only right to consider this when assessing how a season has gone, it is safe to say he hasn’t quite hit a high note so far in the season.
Tokyo appeared to be much of the same for the German driver, with a largely nondescript weekend. Starting ahead of only the Andretti pairing for round 8, Beckmann finished only 18th at the flag, ahead only of Hughes’ Maserati, who miscalculated his attack mode and finished a minute behind.
While 16th in qualifying and 13th at the end of the race signified improvement for Beckmann, it was still far from the highs his more illustrious teammate achieved in the weekend.
The German remains one of two drivers yet to score a point in 2025, apart from Lola Yamaha ABT’s Zane Maloney. While Kiro may have announced its drivers late into the off season, Beckmann will face a massive learning curve if he is to prove he can be an ideal foil to his experienced teammate, as the team chases greater heights with a Porsche powertrain aiding their charge.
Winner: Taylor Barnard
The result book may not have reflected a resounding success for McLaren’s Taylor Barnard, but it reflected signs of a much stronger and reaffirming showing in the Japanese capital for one of Season 11’s poster boys.
Only two weeks on from a horror weekend in Monaco, McLaren rejoiced on their return to the Formula E podium, with Barnard once again the recipient of the silverware for the team. A fourth podium appearance of the season only added to his list of achievements in a starring season 11 for the team.
Having qualified an excellent fourth after the grid order was drawn from free practice 2 on Friday, Barnard drove a measured race, scrapping with Rowland’s teammate Norman Nato in the initial corners, before moving past Edoardo Mortara’s Mahindra in the Pit Boost sequences.
Late in the race, the youngster from Norwich found himself as the meat in a three-way scrap for second, getting sideways in turn 9 as he attempted to chase down Rowland for second on the road. Although in vain, Barnard managed to keep Sébastien Buemi’s Envision behind, for third.
The second race saw Barnard qualify ninth, just ahead of teammate Sam Bird. The youngster made up four places in the opening laps to sit fifth on the road. An early four minutes of attack mode allowed him to jump up into the podium spots, as he remained there until the closing stages.
Scrapping with Dan Ticktum’s Cupra Kiro for position saw Barnard squeezed out in the final corner, and a clout from the Mahindra racer put Barnard into the turn 6 barrier, costing him a potential fourth position finish on the road. A strong weekend for Barnard, nonetheless, one that lifts him to fourth in the championship standings.
Losers: Mahindra Racing
It’s rare to find Mahindra in this column of our articles, with round 9 in Tokyo marking the first instance of the Indian manufacturer failing to score points in season 11. Such has been the consistency both Mortara and teammate Nyck de Vries have displayed in 2025.
Mortara made his way into the duels for round 9, making it two top-eight starts in the weekend, after the rained-out qualifying saw him start second for the Saturday race. Despite running second before the Pit Boost sequence, the Swiss man lost positions to the chasing Barnard and Buemi, with Ticktum too slipping past into fifth.
While Mortara scored Mahindra’s only points of the weekend in sixth, de Vries couldn’t maintain his finishing position of eighth. A collision with Mitch Evans on lap 17 led to the Dutchman copping a five-second penalty, demoting him outside the points.
De Vries struggled in round 9 on Sunday, damaging his front wing in the early stages. He then dropped back, Mahindra then choosing to wait for a safety car. While this proved a prolonged wait until three laps from the end, de Vries would only climb up to 15th on the road.
Teammate Mortara continued Mahindra’s run, having sat in a comfortable points-paying position as the leaders squabbled. However, he went into the rear of Barnard’s McLaren at turn 6, nudging the papaya car into the barriers. Mortara, meanwhile, copped a five-second penalty for his actions, dropping out of the points after the penalty was added to his race time.
Despite failing to finish in the points, Mahindra held onto third in the standings, nine points clear of McLaren and ten clear of DS Penske in fifth.
Winners: Tokyo
Formula E’s debut in Tokyo last year was met with praise for the event itself, but the racing product was less-than-stellar. The palpable lack of overtaking opportunities significantly harmed the racing product. One couldn’t help but wonder that, given the close competition of the field practically tripping over each other to make moves, would an easier-to-overtake circuit have provided a much better race?
This year’s race answered those questions. Whilst the circuit was largely unchanged, the cars were dramatically different. Formula E introduced the Gen3 EVO car at the start of Season 11, with an increased power output of 300 kW, and all wheel drive to support the 350 kW of power in attack mode.
The large gap in performance between normal race mode and Attack Mode has been a major talking point in season 11. Having been viewed as a hindrance before, attack mode can now be worth up to five seconds a lap on certain circuits, and that gulf in performance between modes makes for incredible racing and strategy.
Tokyo massively benefitted from this new car. The new Attack Mode transformed this circuit, with overtaking easier than ever. The racing proved to be outstanding, visible at the end of round 9, with upto five cars battling for the win, often two abreast through multiple corners. Though the late safety car put a premature end to the excitement, it was clear to see Tokyo is more than capable of thrilling races.
Losers: Mitch Evans
Much like it has in 2025, Mitch Evans endured another scoreless weekend, his tally of 25 points remaining unchanged ever since the Brazilian stood on top of the podium after his victory from last place in a manic São Paulo E-Prix in December.
Despite starting 19th in round 8, Evans had managed to climb up the order, running in the points as he targeted a potential points finish. But alas, just as his season had gone, there would be no way for him to make this possible. Contact from de Vries on lap 17 spun him around, and the resultant damage to his Jaguar forcing him to retire on lap 21.
Round 9 would be even more gut-wrenching, with Evans unable to make the race. A scary incident in qualifying saw the Jaguar man experience a moment of oversteer into the fast turn 16, a revamped corner for this year’s race.
As he entered the corner too fast, Evans attempted to overcorrect his trajectory, but this only sent him into the outside barrier in the corner. The resultant impact sheared off Evans’ right rear wheel, as it rolled into the run off at turn 17 in great speed, rebounding in the air as it struck the barrier.
With no way to change direction at high speed, Evans too rolled into the barrier at turn 17, ruled out of qualifying. With the damage too much to fix before the start, Jaguar were left with no choice but to withdraw Evans from the race before it got underway.
It capped off yet another disappointing weekend for the New Zealander, who will perhaps see yet another year go by without an elusive Formula E title to his name.
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