Facts & figures: The best statistics on the 2024 Formula E race in Tokyo

On Saturday, Formula E held in Tokyo its first race in Japan since the series was founded. The fifth round of the 2024 Formula E World Championship produced some interesting statistics, milestones and curiosities.

Statistical peculiarities at the Tokyo E-Prix

• Oliver Rowland achieved his seventh pole position in Formula E. He is now fifth on the all-time leaderboard behind Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne (16 each), Antonio Felix da Costa and Stoffel Vandoorne (8 each).
• Rowland has never lost a qualifying duel in 2024: every time the Nissan driver has entered the duels, he has won every single one of them and started from pole position.
• For the first time in the Gen3 era, all six manufacturers made it to the Duel Stage of qualifying with at least one car.
• It was the fifth race win for Maximilian Günther, drawing level with Pascal Wehrlein. It was the tenth Formula E victory for Maserati MSG Racing, included its predecessor team Venturi.
• Oliver Rowland secured his third podium in a row. After Nick Cassidy, he is the second driver to achieve this in 2024.
• Günther and Wehrlein are the only drivers to finish in the points in every race in 2024.
• Jake Dennis is the only driver to finish in front of his grid position in every race this season. He improved by at least two positions in every single race.
• Nico Müller's seventh place was the second-best result for ABT Cupra since its return to Formula E. Only at the 2023 Rome E-Prix had Müller achieved a better result with sixth place. It was also the first points-scoring result for a Mahindra-powered team this season.
• Nico Müller became the 33rd driver in total to break the 50-point barrier in Formula E. With 51 points, he is the only driver to have collected as many points as his current starting number.
• In Tokyo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sebastien Buemi cracked the 10,000 race kilometres mark in Formula E.

Average qualifying result (season)

The best driver in qualifying this season is still Pascal Wehrlein, but Max Günther, Mitch Evans and Jean-Eric Vergne also always made it into the duel phase on average.

Average race result (season)

Wehrlein is also in the lead in this statistic, followed by Jake Dennis and Max Günther. However, Nissan works driver Oliver Rowland has caught up thanks to three podium finishes in a row.

Position changes (Tokyo E-Prix)

With a total of eleven positions gained, Nick Cassidy was the driver who advanced the most in Tokyo. Coming from 19th on the grid, the Jaguar driver even scored four important championship points in eighth place. Behind him in this statistic are Sacha Fenestraz with nine and Sebastien Buemi with eight positions gained. At the bottom of the list is the disqualified Edo Mortara (-19).

Race laps completed (season)

Nine drivers have completed all 179 race laps so far this season. Nyck de Vries is no longer one of them after his retirement in Japan.

Lead laps (season)

Tokyo saw two new drivers at the front of the field: Max Günther and Oliver Rowland completed their first lead kilometres of the season.

Included under "other" are: Mitch Evans (9), Sebastien Buemi (7), Robin Frijns (4), Antonio Felix da Costa (3) and Jean-Eric Vergne (3).

Performance analysis of the drivers & teams (Tokyo E-Prix)

The winner of our performance analysis for the Tokyo E-Prix is Oliver Rowland. The Nissan driver set the fastest lap of the weekend in the semi-final of qualifying (1:18.855 minutes). Somewhat surprisingly, Mahindra driver Edoardo Mortara followed ahead of Max Günther and Sergio Sette Camara. On a fast lap, the powertrain no longer seems to make a big difference: The first six drivers are using six different powertrains! At the back of the field are Lucas di Grassi (1:20.269), Sebastien Buemi (1;20.363) and Jehan Daruvala (1:20.395).

Notably, Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein were the only two drivers to make it through to the duel phase of qualifying, where they were unable to improve on their lap times from the second free practice session. Some drivers also set faster lap times in group qualifying with 300 kW than in free practice with 350 kW.

The fastest team on one lap was Nissan ahead of Mahindra. They were followed by Maserati, ERT and Andretti. The slowest team was DS Penske. For the manufacturer ranking, this means adjusted: Nissan >>> Mahindra >>> Stellantis >>> ERT >>> Porsche >>> Jaguar

Lap time analysis

When analysing the lap times (we are only looking at the last third of the race after the safety car period), it is particularly noticeable that Max Günther secured victory with a tactical masterstroke: the Maserati driver was the fastest man in the field until lap 26, giving him enough of a lead to stay in front when he activated his last attack mode. In the following laps, he had to save the energy invested in this intermediate sprint and therefore also came under pressure from Oliver Rowland.

But several other drivers - including Robin Frijns, Pascal Wehrlein and Nick Cassidy - also pursued similar tactics to Günther, while both DS Penske drivers, Mitch Evans and Sacha Fenestraz favoured conservative tactics with consistent lap times.

Jehan Daruvala, Stoffel Vandoorne and Edoardo Mortara had to slow down at the end to make it to the finish. However, this was in vain for Mortara: the Swiss driver used all his energy before the finish line, but drove on anyway and was subsequently disqualified.

Sam Bird, one lap down after his accident, risked a flat-out tactic in the final laps in the hope of another safety car, but it didn't work out: The race winner from Sao Paulo parked his McLaren in the pits without energy remaing, one lap before the end.