ROWLAND DENIED DOUBLE AFTER SUFFERING AN ENERGY CRISIS
Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein took a win apiece after a dramatic pair of Formula E races upon its first visit to Misano last weekend.
Rowland claimed Nissan’s first victory since the Briton took a win at the Berlin EPrix back in August 2020, but his weekend ended in disappointment after his team fluffed energy calculations in Sunday’s race to hand Wehrlein and Porsche the maximum points.
Antonio Felix da Costa had taken the chequered flag first on Saturday after climbing from 14th into the lead in an ultra-pack racing event that was dictated by high energy saving in the first three-quarters of the race.
The Portuguese man’s joy was tempered five hours after the race when he was disqualified in the most bizarre circumstances. Porsche was adjudged to have been using a non-compliant throttle damper spring.
Discussions and heated meetings between the FIA and Porsche went on long in to the evening but da Costa was eventually thrown out, meaning that Rowland headed the final results ahead of Andretti’s
Jake Dennis and Maserati’s
Max Gunther.
Dan Ticktum collected his best-yet Formula E result with a stealthy and canny run to fourth for ERT, while polesitter Mitch Evans and Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top six for Jaguar and DS Penske respectively.
In Saturday’s race, there were multiple contacts and stories of woe with many of the 22 competitors shedding front wings and have damage inflicted as they jockeyed for positions in a peloton-style cycling pack.
With Sunday’s race being two laps fewer, the pace was quicker but the early stages still led to some clashes with Robin Frijns, Sam Bird, da Costa and Sebastien Buemi all pitting with damage.
Jake Hughes led the early stages from pole position in his
McLaren-Nissan but soon gave up top spot to first Vergne’s DS Penske and then a flying Abt Cupra Mahindra of Nico Muller.
With Wehrlein, Rowland and Nick Cassidy’s Jaguar and Jake Dennis’Andretti-Porsche also in the mix, it appeared to boil down to who would bolt for the line in the closing laps.
With five laps to go it was Rowland who blinked first, and seemed likely to achieve a surprise Misano double, as he headed Wehrlein comfortably going into the final lap.
But Rowland’s race was essentially doomed from the start after a software issue on the grid rattled the team and its energylap count procedures went askew. It meant Rowland was effectively on an energy target one lap short and he duly ground to halt, letting a grateful Wehrlein through for the win.
Behind the Porsche there was a thrilling three-way scrap for the remaining rungs of the podium as
Dennis took his second consecutive runners-up spot. But the real fight was third as Cassidy took advantage of the energy-limited Abt car of Muller to surge his Jaguar ahead by just 0.050s across the line.
Rowland’s team-mate Sacha Fenestraz halted a poor start to the season with fifth place ahead of Sergio Sette Camara’s giantkilling ERT in sixth.
Results
Misano Prix When: April 13-14 Where: Misano World Circuit, Italy
Race 1 – 28 laps: 1 Oliver Rowland (Nissan) 40m05.176s; 2 Jake Dennis (Andretti) +3.003s; 3 Max Gunther (Maserati) +3.788s; 4 Dan Ticktum (ERT) +4.554s; 5 Mitch Evans (Jaguar) +5.637s; 6 Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) +7.559s; 7 Norman Nato (Andretti) +7.588s; 8 Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske) +7.639s; 9 Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) +7.768s; 10 Lucas di Grassi (Abt Cupra) +7.967s. Pole position: Evans. Fastest lap: Rowland (94.4mph). Race 2 – 26 laps: 1 Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) 37m05.241s; 2 Dennis +1.933s; 3 Nick Cassidy (Jaguar) +2.221s; 4 Nico Muller (Abt Cupra) +2.271s; 5 Fenestraz +5.230s; 6 Sergio Sette Camara (ERT) +5.727; 7 Vergne +6.794s; 8 Jake Hughes (McLaren) +8.236s; 9 Jehan Daruvala (Maserati) +8.714s; 10 Sam Bird (McLaren) +11.912s. Pole position: Hughes. Fastest lap: Wehrlein (95.1mph). Points (after 7/16 rounds): 1 Wehrlein 89; 2 Dennis 89; 3 Rowland 80; 4 Cassidy 76; 5 Gunther 63; 6 Vergne 53. Teams: 1 Jaguar 128; 2 Andretti 112; 3 Porsche 109; 4 Nissan 100; 5 DS Penske 75; 6 Maserati 65.