Guenther and Maserati win Japanese waiting game
A slow-burner of a contest delivered the fifth different winner in as many races on Formula E’s first visit to the land of the rising sun
For more than a decade Formula E had attempted to stage a race in Tokyo, and that dream finally became a reality last weekend when the all-electric championship set up shop in the most populous city in the world. The patience of the sell-out crowd was pushed a little further in the race, with the inaugural contest a slow burner that only came to fruition in the final stages, when Maximilian Guenther and his Maserati MSG team put on a strategic masterclass that got the better of Oliver Rowland and home favourite Nissan.
Prior to the event Guenther had finished in the points across all four races in 2024, but none had resulted in a podium. Yet a remarkable climb through the order at the previous round in Sao Paulo, where he finished ninth after serving a 10-second stop/go penalty, hinted at a package capable of challenging for outright honours when presented with the right opportunity.
A talking point ahead of the event had been how difficult it would be to overtake around the 20-turn, 1.6-mile street circuit located in Tokyo’s dockside Big Sight area, with little in the way of long straights or heavy braking zones. That proved to be the case, and track position became the key to strategy. That meant that, unlike previous races this season, both Attack Modes were not taken at the earliest opportunity.
Rowland initially maintained his advantage from pole while Guenther lost out to Edoardo Mortara, who from third got a better launch off the cleaner and grippier side of the grid and even briefly challenged for the lead into Turn 1. With the Mahindra driver having excelled in qualifying, but with no points on the board this season, it was reasonable to assume that he would gradually slip back as the race developed, and that proved to be the case.
With that in mind, Guenther was keen to move back ahead and launched his first serious attempt on lap 10, the order across the top half of the field having remained almost entirely static up to that point. As Mortara went defensive into the tight Turn 6 righthander, the loss of momentum gave Rowland a small gap for the first time, which come the next lap was enough for him to take his first Attack Mode and still retain the lead.
By now Guenther had moved into second when Mortara also moved off the racing line to activate his extra power at the same time as Rowland. Just two laps later Guenther was at the head of the race when Rowland took his second Attack Mode on lap 13. He fell in just behind Guenther, who then relinquished the lead a lap later with his own activation. It also momentarily dropped him behind Mortara, but the German got the better exit out of Turn 15 and moved back in front just before Turn 16, which proved crucial.
Once racing resumed after a brief safety car period to retrieve debris, with two laps added to take the total to 35, Guenther began to probe Rowland’s defences, and the pivotal moment of the race came 10 laps from home. While Rowland was liftingand-coasting to save energy, Guenther seized the opportunity to move ahead on the approach to the Turns 10/11 chicane.
“I surprised him, I guess, into Turn 10, and it just opened up the race for us,” smiled the Bavarian. “I tried to pull a bit of a gap but I couldn’t really enough [in the beginning] to take my Attack Mode, and this was key to winning the race. Obviously it was very tight with Oliver.”
Guenther pulled the pin once in front, knowing that a gap of more than one second was going to be needed to take his remaining Attack Mode and resume in the lead. After two laps and with a margin of 1.7 seconds, Guenther took his final activation
and did retain the lead, but any thoughts that the race was done were far from Rowland’s mind. Over the final lap the Yorkshireman made three attempts to force a way ahead before falling short in a race that for large parts looked like it had been his to lose. After leading for 23 laps and with seemingly the stronger outright race pace, Rowland admitted that the win “was on the table”.
“I was kind of in a position where if I’d stayed out front any longer then I probably would have been swallowed up by more people,” explained Rowland, who has hit his stride this season with a hat-trick of podiums on the bounce – this has put him third in the drivers’ standings, just nine points off top spot. “Of course I was trying to keep the lead, but when he [Guenther] had the energy and needed to do the Attack Mode, I knew he was going to try and attack because he needed to pull a gap and take it. It’s one of those things; if I did it again I’m not really sure what I’d do different. Would I have to relinquish the lead a bit earlier and stay in the slipstream?”
While Maserati and Nissan-powered machinery battled for the outright win, behind them Porsche showcased impressive form, with the factory team and customer squad Andretti Global locking out the following four spots. At the head of the group was reigning champion Jake Dennis, who like Mortara had moved up a
“If I’d stayed out front any longer then I probably would have been swallowed up by more people”
position off the line, at the expense of Sergio Sette Camara, and remained in the leading quartet for much of the race. The Briton’s race effort was aided by Andretti team-mate Norman Nato, who slowed the chasing pack twice to allow Dennis to take both his Attack Modes without losing position.
Nato was classified sixth when a 5s penalty for a collision with Robin Frijns was rescinded post-race, and the Frenchman was gifted another position after finishing behind Mortara on the road – the Swiss was heartbreakingly disqualified for energy overuse on the run to the line.
Dennis had been able to snatch the final podium spot from Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa, who was left aggrieved at losing the position three laps from the end when attempting to overtake Rowland around the outside of Turn 15. “The overlap was 100% – my front wheel was on his front wheel and he pushed me completely on the wall,” fumed da Costa, who had charged from eighth on the grid. “I’m a little bit disappointed because the FIA always say that they don’t penalise on the consequence, but they do because I know if I hit the wall in that moment Oliver gets a penalty. And because I avoided the contact, he doesn’t get a penalty, so I almost feel like I need to hit the wall for the FIA to penalise him, which really sucks.”
Team-mate Pascal Wehrlein finished immediately behind after losing ground mid-race when he tried to overtake Dennis through the final sequence of corners, with the loss of momentum allowing both Nato and Frijns to move ahead. Despite also picking up damage to his front wing in his side-by-side battle with Dennis, Wehrlein was able to recover to fifth, and retake the lead in the drivers’ standings after a less-than-ideal weekend for Nick Cassidy and Jaguar.
The Kiwi came into the event with a four-point lead and initially progressed to the duel stage of qualifying, but his best lap was removed after “torque at the rear wheels did not respect the homologated primary throttle pedal map”. It meant that Cassidy had to start from 19th and, on a track where overtaking was difficult, progress was slow. Unlike the previous race in Sao Paulo – where, after finding himself in a similar situation, frustration possibly got the better of him and he crashed out – Cassidy kept his nose clean. His reward was eighth at the chequered flag, which proved better than team-mate and compatriot Mitch Evans.
Evans, who like Jaguar was celebrating hitting the 100-race milestone in Japan, had benefited from Cassidy’s misfortune in qualifying to make the duels before he was demoted three places on the grid for blocking Mclaren’s Jake Hughes in the group stage. Evans started ninth, lost two further places on the opening lap, and was on the fringes of the top 10 when he went for an overtaking move on Nico Muller into Turn 6.
After diving to the inside, Evans ran deep, colliding with
Frijns in front and damaging his Jaguar’s front wing, with the debris causing the race’s only safety car period. A pitstop for a replacement meant Evans was only able to salvage 15th at the flag to register his first non-score of the season.
Despite the contact from Evans and also losing his front wing in a later collision with Nato, Frijns was able to take ninth in his Envision Jaguar, with Sette Camara securing his second points finish of the season in 10th for ERT.
Guenther’s maiden win of the 2024 campaign has propelled him into championship contention and he sits fifth in the drivers’ standings, just 15 points behind leader Wehrlein. Five different winners from the opening five races, all representing different teams, has showcased Formula E at its best so far this season, and the championship now heads to another new venue at
Misano for a double-header next week.
“I almost feel like I need to hit the wall for the FIA to penalise him, which really sucks”