Oliver Rowland snatches last-gasp win at Mexico City E-Prix
Nissan Formula E driver, Oliver Rowland, capitalised on a late safety car restart at the Mexico City E-Prix to claim his first victory of the 2025 FE season.
Works Porsche drivers, Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein rounded out the podium places in second and third respectively.
Britain’s Rowland – who qualified fourth behind the DS Penske of Jean-Eric Vergne and the two Porsches – staked his claim for victory on lap 28 of 36. With six minutes remaining, Rowland activated his 350kW Attack Mode and all-wheel drive before the first of the two late-stage safety car periods.
On lap 31 of 36, the Nissan driver used his final minute of additional power and grip to breeze past Jake Dennis’ Andretti in third while exiting the final corner. Rowland then deposed pole-sitter and 2024 Formula E champion Wehrlein for second in Turn 5. Several corners later in T12, he passed race leader da Costa for the lead just before another safety car was deployed.
Despite depleting his attack mode shortly after snatching the top spot, Rowland held on to take the fourth victory of his Formula E career. After the race, he praised his team for its “great strategy” after initially losing some ground with the timing of the first safety car.
“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,” he said.
“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.
“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.”
Behind the top three, the Porsche-powered Andretti of Jake Dennis finished fourth after running in the podium places earlier in the race. The Briton was running as high as second around the halfway mark, but he was quickly passed by the two Porsches and Rowland after running out of electrical energy.
The DS Penske cars of Vergne and Maximilian Gunther were fifth and sixth, while the ex-Formula 1 pairing of Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries wound up seventh and eighth for Maserati and Mahindra.
After switching from the FIA World Endurance Championship to Formula E for 2025, Andretti’s Nico Muller opened his 2025 points account with ninth. McLaren man Taylor Barnard put in an impressive performance to score the final point in 10th after qualifying 19th out of 22 drivers.
Rowland’s win puts him second in the drivers’ championship on 25 points behind da Costa, who has 37 points to his name. Meanwhile, Porsche sits comfortably atop the manufacturers’ standings on 58 points ahead of McLaren in second on 27. Jaguar and Nissan are tied for third on 25 points apiece.
The next round of the 2025 Formula E season begins on February 13, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
