Oliver Rowland (Nissan), starting from the front row, won the 8th Monaco E-Prix in masterly fashion on Saturday, executing a perfect strategy and consolidating his leadership in the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship. Before the 9th Monaco E-Prix on Sunday, the Briton owns a comfortable 34-point lead: 94 points in total, compared with 60 points for reigning World Champion Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche). Without ever seeming to be in danger, as he controlled the situation from start to finish.

The very young 20-year-old pole-sitter Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren) got off to an excellent start, then led the way until lap 12, when Rowland forced his way through the Port chicane. Barnard resisted, had to cut the chicane, and then let Rowland ahead to avoid a penalty. After another tussle on lap 15, the Nissan driver made his compulsory stop for fast charging (Pit Boost) at the start of lap 19. He then put his Attack Mode back on, at the end of the race, to move back into the lead and head for his 3rd win of the season, in 6 rounds. That’s a 50% win rate…

Barnard was unable to fight to the end, having been being pushed by Wehrlein at the Fairmont hairpin, on lap 24. And the other two podium places were taken by two former Formula E World Champions, Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) and Jake Dennis (Andretti). At the end of the yellow flag period caused by the crash of Felix da Costa (TAG Heuer Porsche) at the Antony-Noghès bend, the 2023 champion caught Wehrlein and de Vries by surprise on lap 11, at the top of the Ostende climb. He was then penalized five seconds (for speeding under a yellow flag), but this small incident did not prevent him from taking a well-deserved 3rd place, at the end of a hard-fought race in which the Pit Boost, a 2025 novelty, played a very limited role.

No celebrations tonight…

The only driver to really benefit from the Pit Boost was Switzerland’s Nico Müller (Andretti), who pitted during the yellow flags on lap 9, losing less time than all his rivals later on in the race. This enabled him to take the lead with ten laps to go, before everything fell into place and Rowland finished the race with a bang, taking first place under the chequered flag. Müller finally took 5th place, behind his compatriot Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) who finished just off the podium.

“I can’t complain, it’s been a great start to the season,” Rowland told the media at the press conference. “I’m very confident, my car is really good, and I was determined this weekend, after the Miami race which didn’t go so well. I heard a strange noise when I went to the grid, so I was very stressed. Then my gearbox temperature went up, probably because of my crash this morning in qualifying, and I was even more stressed. When I found myself in 5th place, I was very upset and I shouted to my engineers, on the radio. I wanted to put on the Attack Mode one or two laps earlier, but the team decided otherwise. I was a bit worried, but in the end everything turned out fine”.

The post-race celebrations will be less festive than on a “normal” weekend, the winner of the day regretted, because there is another E-Prix scheduled for this Sunday, starting at 8:30 am (with one and only Free Practice session). Then Qualifying at 10.40 a.m. and the race start at 3.04 pm, just like today. Another thriller is on the cards!