Formula E News: Rowland wins Saturday Monaco e-Prix for Nissan
Nissan’s Oliver Rowland picked his way through a frenetic closing third of the 2025 Monaco E-Prix Round 6 to drive to a dominant win over Mahindra Racing’s Nyck de Vries and Andretti’s Jake Dennis.
Oliver Rowland of Nissan Formula E Team achieved his first victory on the iconic Monaco street circuit, marking his third win in the initial six races of the 2024/25 season. This impressive performance translates to a 50% win rate and has further extended his lead in the FIA Drivers’ World Championship standings to a significant 34 points over reigning champion Wehrlein, who finished sixth in this race and now has 60 points. Rowland currently holds 94 points.
A key factor in Rowland’s success was the strategic deployment of PIT BOOST by Nissan, allowing him to overtake polesitter Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren Formula E Team) on Lap 13. Despite briefly losing the lead to Nyck de Vries (Mahindra Racing) on Lap 26, Rowland masterfully utilised his final ATTACK MODE on Lap 27 to reclaim the lead, ultimately winning the race by a comfortable two-second margin.
Behind Rowland, the Andretti team experienced mixed fortunes. Dennis received a five-second penalty, impacting his final position and dropping him to third. His teammate Nico Mueller initially finished fourth but was then overtaken at the finish line by Eduardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing), placing Mueller in fifth.
Nyck de Vries’ second-place finish marked his first podium since London 2022, and his Mahindra team’s first podium since Mexico City 2023. In the FIA Teams’ World Championship standings, Porsche leads Nissan by nine points (114 to 105), while Nissan leads Porsche in the FIA Manufacturers’ World Championship standings.
Oliver Rowland, No. 23, Nissan Formula E Team said:
“You never know what to do with the strategy especially with these PIT BOOST races – it’s the second race but we kind of had a plan and we stuck to it. It was a bit trickier to pass Taylor [Barnard] to be honest, but we kept calm – even at the end I was pretty worried during that second ATTACK MODE: I dropped back to fifth and I was behind two Mahindras, and I was like ‘right now we need to get cracking’, but great job by the team and very well executed.
“I was thinking Taylor was pushing the barriers of the rules at some points, but fair play to him – in the end we got the job done so it doesn’t really matter. We’ve started the season really well, but it feels a bit different now. Normally you’d be looking forward to the champagne but you’ve already got one eye on tomorrow.”
Nyck De Vries, No. 21, Mahindra Racing said:
“It’s been an incredible day for us as a team, obviously I can’t thank them enough. They executed a great race during the PIT BOOST, and chose the right moments to go for it and take the ATTACK MODE so honestly a big thanks to them.
“It’s very nice to be on this journey together, we’ve come from far last year and we’ve constantly made little steps. It’s nice to give them this reward because they really deserve it. I consider it an advantage being at home, having my friends here watching me, and it’s nice to have them here to see what we accomplished today.”
Jake Dennis, No. 27, Andretti Formula E said:
“I was pretty stressed at the restart, I knew it was going to be pretty close with the Full Course Yellow, and sure enough when the penalty came I took it on the chin. I had to have a bit of help from Nico [Mueller] and obviously the pace was strong enough to create a gap, but it was such a tough race – there’s mentally so many different strategies going on.
“I honestly felt like we did most things perfect, it was obviously just the PIT BOOST situation: having to use the spare and then losing one or two seconds with that, and then we dropped too far back, but the car has been quick all day today and the boys really gave me a rocket ship. To be able to fight back through and get my first podium of the season – it’s been so long since Misano Season 10 – to repay them with a Monaco podium is always special. We’ve got to do it all again tomorrow which feels a bit weird, but I’m confident we can stand up here and try and take it to Oliver [Rowland].”
Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal, Nissan Formula E Team: “It’s a special feeling to take victory in Monaco. We prepared well in the build-up to this weekend and hit the ground running with Oliver. He had a very strong day, executing the plan perfectly to top the group in qualifying and then clinch second on the grid despite having bent his steering during the quarter finals, which led him to touch the wall during the final and miss out on the pole position. The team did a great job to repair the car for the race and Oli did the rest, taking advantage of the strategy superbly to earn his third win of the season.
“On Norman’s side, we had a few issues with the car throughout the day, which prevented him from showing his true pace in qualifying. We tried an aggressive strategy for the race, saving energy early to keep out of trouble in the midfield but weren’t quite able to move through into the points. We will work hard tonight to figure out the issues on the car so he can drive to his full potential tomorrow.”