Formula E: Rowland always "wanted to win in Mexico"
After his surprise victory at the Mexico City E-Prix, Nissan racer Oliver Rowland reckoned that he had always targeted to win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez given its special atmosphere. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the Mexican round of Season 11.
Although the opening stages of the race saw reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein, Antonio Felix da Costa and former FE champion Jake Dennis fight at the sharp end of the field, it was Oliver Rowland to cross the finish line first to take an excellent win for Nissan.
The Brit made the semi-finals of the duels in qualifying, lining up in fourth on the grid, with his teammate Norman Nato starting from P18, after a frustrating session.
Rowland made his way into the top-three by Turn 1 on the second lap and pulled off a stunning last corner overtake to move up another place as the race approached the halfway stage. Dropping back and saving his attack mode until later compared to his fellow competitors, he activated his last power boost in the dying stages of the race.
However, when the safety car was deployed, he was unable to use the full length of his attack mode, but he managed to utilize the last minute of his extra power after the restart to move himself into the lead.
Reflecting on his first victory of the season, Rowland reckoned that he had always targeted to win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez given its special atmosphere.
“I’m delighted to take this victory in Mexico, as it’s always been a track that I’ve wanted to win at with these amazing fans in this incredible stadium. It was a great strategy from the team today, but we were initially unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car as I had just activated Attack Mode.
"However, fortunately once this period ended, we were left with around a minute of extra power, so I just knew I had to be decisive when making those overtakes. It’s an unbelievable feeling to get this win for the team after I made a small mistake in the duels.
"My thoughts go out to my Performance Engineer, Asier Sebastián, who was taken to hospital this morning with acute appendicitis, and I wish him all the best in his recovery and hope he can be back with us at the track soon.”
On the other side of the garage, his team-mate Norman Nato battled hard with those around him in a tightly matched field, ensuring a clean performance which moved him up five positions finishing P13.
“We showed strong potential throughout the event but unfortunately, we failed to put everything together at the crucial time in qualifying," started Nato. "We pitted early and were then out of sequence and couldn’t generate the tire temperature needed to advance to the duels.
"This unfortunately compromised our race as Mexico is one of the trickiest tracks to make your way through the field. I felt comfortable in the car today, but it was difficult after qualifying.
"The positives are that we’re now second in the Manufacturers’ Standings and Oli picked up the win so we’re heading in the right direction," the Frenchman concluded.
This result now means that Nissan sits second in the Manufacturers’ Standings after the opening two rounds of Season 11, and sees Rowland move up into the same place in the Drivers’ Championship. The series continues next month with a maiden trip to Jeddah as the first double-header of the campaign takes place on February 13-15.
Race recap
Starting from pole position, Pascal Wehrlein hung on to the lead into the first corner, with Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean Eric Vergne following him.
On Lap 3, McLaren driver Taylor Barnard became the first driver to activate his first of two attack modes. His higher energy mode enabled him to go past former FE champion Lucas di Grassi and his Lola Yamaha team-mate Zane Maloney on Lap 5. The Briton then went on to overtake the Maserati pair of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jake Hughes as well.
The following lap saw Sam Bird, David Beckmann and Vandoorne activate their first of two attack modes, as they saw how big of an advantage the higher energy mode provided.
Using his attack mode, Bird was flying up the order, overtaking his rivals corner by corner to fight his way up into P9.
Lap 13 saw Jake Dennis activate his first attack mode, going for a four-minute power boost. The extra power helped him overtake Vergne to take P4. On the same lap, race leader Wehrlein and Vergne elected to take their first power boost. Interestingly, both of them opted for a two-minute attack mode.
Dennis then continued his march towards the front of the field, overtaking Da Costa into Turn 1 on the next lap. The British driver managed to overtake Wehrlein in the stadium section, taking over the lead with a bold, ambitious overtaking manoeuvre.
The following lap saw Da Costa use his attack mode to overtake his team-mate Wehrlein before going past Dennis to take over the lead. Andretti driver Nico Mueller also overtook former race leader Wehrlein.
With da Costa electing to take his second attack mode, he dropped back behind Dennis, who set the quickest race lap on Lap 22.
Coming into the stadium section, Da Costa managed to pick off race leader Dennis despite being on the same power mode. In the meantime, the top three drivers, Da Costa, Dennis and Wehrlein appeared to have escaped from the chasing group, having built up an advantage of over a second.
With only eight laps to go in the 36-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, fourth-placed Oliver Rowland elected to take his second, six-minute attack mode.
In the meantime, Beckmann came to a halt in the slow 90-degree corner ahead of the stadium section. The German was unable to get his Cupra Kiro going, and race director Scot Elkins, who returned to Formula E after missing the season-opening race at Sao Paulo, deployed the safety car.
The action resumed on Lap 31, and third-placed Oliver Rowland suddenly found himself in a great position, as he still had almost a second of attack mode. The Nissan racer first overtook Wehrlein only to go past Da Costa a few moments later.
The field was not even able to complete a single lap at full pace as the safety car was deployed again because of the stricken car of Mitch Evans, but the action resumed a lap later.
With only four laps to go, Rowland found himself at the front of the field, with da Costa, Wehrlein and Dennis following him. The Race Direction announced that there will be no added laps to the race despite the two short safety car interventions.
Da Costa had two per cent more energy than Rowland, but with only two laps to got, the Briton managed to fend off the attacks of the Porsche racer to win the Mexico City E-Prix for Nissan.
Reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein finished third, with Dennis coming home fourth.
Vergne and Guenther rounded in fifth and sixth, Maserati driver Vandoorne followed in seventh with more points for Nyck de Vries and Mahindra Racing with eighth. Andretti's Nico Mueller and McLaren's Taylor Barnard completed the top 10.
