A stunning series of overtaking maneuvers enabled Oliver Rowland to take victory for Nissan in the Mexico City E-Prix. F1Technical’s reports on Round 2 of the 2024/2025 Formula E season.
Starting from pole position, Pascal Wehrlein hung onto the lead going into the first corner, with 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 allowed him to pass former FE champion Lucas di Grassi and his Lola Yamaha team-mate Zane Maloney on lap 5. The Brit then also overtook the Maserati pair of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jakes Huges.
The following lap saw Sam Bird, David Beckman and Vandoorne activate their first of two attack modes, seeing how much of an advantage the higher energy mode provided.
Using his attack mode, Bird flew up the order and overtook his rivals corner by corner to fight his way up into P9.
Lap 13 saw Jake Dennis activate his first attack mode and go for a four minute power boost. The extra power helped him overtake Verge to take P4. On the same lap, race leader Wehrlein and Verge chose to take their first power increase. Interestingly, they both chose a two minute attack mode.
Dennis then continued his march towards the front of the field and overtook Da Costa into Turn 1 on the next lap. The British driver managed to overtake Wehrlein in the stadium section and took over the lead with a bold, ambitious overtaking manoeuvre.
The following lap saw Da Costa use his attacking mode to overtake his teammate Wehrlein before moving past Dennis to take over the lead. Andretti driver Nico Mueller also overtook former race leader Wehrlein.
When Da Costa opted to take his second attack position, he fell back behind Dennis, who set the fastest race lap on lap 22.
Entering the stadium section, Da Costa managed to pick off race leader Dennis despite being in the same power position. Meanwhile, the top three drivers, Da Costa, Dennis and Wehrlein, appeared to have escaped the chase group, having built up an advantage of over a second.
With eight laps to go, fourth-placed Oliver Rowland opted to take his second six-minute attack mode.
Meanwhile, Beckmann stayed in the slow 90-degree corner before the stadium section. The German was unable to get his Cupra Kiro going and race leader Scot Elkins, returning to Formula E after missing the season opener in Sao Paulo, deployed the safety car.
Action resumed on lap 31, and third-placed Oliver Rowland suddenly found himself in a fantastic position, as he still had nearly a second in attack mode. The Nissan racer first overtook Wehrlein to pass Da Costa a few moments later.
The field was unable to even complete a single lap at full pace as safety was brought back in due to Mitch Evans’ stuck car, but action resumed a lap later.
With just four laps to go, Rowland found himself at the front of the field, with da Costa, Wehrlein and Dennis trailing him. Race Direction announced that no laps will be added to the race despite the two brief safety car interventions.
Da Costa had two percent more energy than Rowland, but with just two laps remaining, the Brit managed to fend off the attacks of the Porsche racer and win the Mexico City E-Prix for Nissan.
Reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein finished third, and Dennis finished fourth.
Vergne and Guenther rounded out fifth and sixth, Maserati driver Vandoorne followed in seventh with more points for Nyck de Vries and Mahindra Racing in eighth. Andretti’s Nico Mueller and McLaren’s Taylor Barnard completed the top 10.
