Oliver Rowland Scores Home Win For Nissan In Tokyo E-Prix Round 9

Nissan’s Oliver Rowland secured the race win in the 2025 Tokyo E-Prix Round 9, his fourth victory of the season and on home soil for the Japanese marque.

The polesitter had slipped to sixth during a late jump for ATTACK MODE, but he was able to make the final few seconds of his last mandatory 50kW four-wheel drive boost count as he sliced by then-leader, reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein. The Porsche driver squeezed Rowland on the defence between Turns 15 and 16 but was unable to hold on.

Three poles, two podiums and now the race win in Formula E’s three races in the Japanese capital so far for Rowland – much to the delight of many in the grandstands donning Nissan red.

Wehrlein would have to settle for second following that late move despite his best efforts to cling to P1, while Dan Ticktum (CUPRA KIRO) was left ruing a late appearance by the Safety Car which scuppered his chances of bettering what was to be a maiden podium. It could have been more, with the Brit holding energy in-hand over the duo ahead, but Ticktum would be more than happy to secure his first Formula E silverware – and the team’s best result since Mexico City, 2018.

Jake Dennis (Andretti) made stealthy progress through the pack with consummate use of ATTACK MODE and some smart moves on the way to fourth, up from 14th on the grid at lights out.

Lucas di Grassi followed up a strong showing in qualifying for Lola Yamaha ABT with a fighting fifth at the flag while Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top six for DS PENSKE.

Rowland stretches his legs yet further as the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship passes its halfway mark. He’s now sitting pretty on 161 points to Wehrlein’s 84, the largest Championship lead in Formula E history at the half-way point.

Nissan leads Porsche in both the Teams’ and the Manufacturers’ World Championships as Formula E heads next to a double-header in Shanghai, China on 31 May & 1 June.

Oliver Rowland, No. 23, Nissan Formula E Team said: 

“No words! I was not a master of strategy in the first half of the race, I was pretty disappointed in myself. But I figured out that everybody would kind of undercut me so I thought: ‘I’ve got six minutes, I’ll undercut them’ and in the end it worked. I knew they would all react. I just had to make the progress on the first lap so it paid off today, but I was a bit lucky. I’ve always said that in Tokyo and Shanghai I need to keep pushing to extend the Championship lead. Going into Shanghai I’ll have the same approach this year and then maybe after that we can start to think about the lead we’ve got.”

Pascal Wehrlein, No. 94, TAG Heuer Porsche said:

“It was an important day in general I think, as yesterday was very tricky. At the moment I’m still a bit disappointed because I think we could have done better, but there was just no way to defend my position when Oli [Rowland] was in ATTACK MODE. I did everything right and probably we need to analyse what we could have done better, but still, second is a good result with Dan [Ticktum] in P3. It’s a very strong day for our package, which on the other side makes all of us happy.”

Dan Ticktum, No. 33, Cupra Kiro said:

“It feels pretty good! I’m already like ‘if we had done this or done that’ I could have won, but I’m very happy overall and it’s a big boost for the team. I just don’t feel like we’ve ever had a breakthrough this season and that’s it. We’re really competing consistently at the top now across all conditions and the team executed a pretty flawless weekend – so I’m happy. There’s not a huge amount I could have done, there was quite a long time when I was forced to lead which was obviously not ideal, and then when me and Pascal [Wehrlein] went to take ATTACK MODE, Oli [Rowland] got in between us. I don’t know what more we could have done from our side really, just different strategies and it didn’t quite work out for P1 or P2, but ‘Driver of the Day’, I’ll take that – I thought everyone hated me! I’m happy, it’s good, thank you to everyone who voted for me, I appreciate it.”