Formula E

Formula E qualifying in Tokyo: Rowland also on pole position on Sunday, Ticktum crashes in the final

Timo Pape

Timo Pape

Dan Bathie / Spacesuit Media

Oliver Rowland also secured pole position in Formula E qualifying in Tokyo on Sunday. In a high-class final, the Nissan driver prevailed over Dan Ticktum in the Cupra Kiro because the latter had an accident. Mitch Evans (Jaguar) and Nico Müller (Andretti) had previously crashed. World champion Pascal Wehrlein made it to third place on the grid in the Porsche.

Group A: Di Grassi strong as a bear, Evans crashes

The top four drivers from Saturday's race competed in the first group: Stoffel Vandoorne, Oliver Rowland, Taylor Barnard and Sebastien Buemi, plus the two Jaguar drivers. After the first nine minutes, Lucas di Grassi was in the lead ahead of Norman Nato, Rowland and Mitch Evans. However, the Jaguar driver was then ingloriously at the centre of attention: Evans - like Taylor Barnard in free practice 1 - hit the wall hard in the fast turn 16. His wheel rim broke, he lost his right rear wheel and skidded straight into the TecPro barrier of the run-off area. A marshal was lucky not to have been hit. Race director Marek Hanaczewski immediately waved the red flags to recover the car. Evans got out unhurt.

After a few minutes of interruption, the drivers returned to the track. In theory, there was still time for two fast laps, provided the drivers hurried and positioned themselves well on the track. Nick Cassidy set the interim fastest time, but most of the others were also faster than before. The absolute fastest time came once again from di Grassi - a strong performance from the Brazilian at the home race of Yamaha! Nato finished second ahead of Rowland. Jean-Eric Vergne also qualified for the duels in fourth place. Barnard, Nyck de Vries, Cassidy, Zane Maloney, Sebastien Buemi, Vandoorne and Evans remained on the literal track.

Group B: Müller crashes in chicane, Wehrlein in commanding position

All six Porsche cars lined up in the second group. Max Günther and Edo Mortara were also among the candidates for the quarter-finals. After the first nine minutes, Pascal Wehrlein was in the lead ahead of Mortara, Antonio Felix da Costa and Jake Dennis. Then things started to get serious - the drivers piled on the pressure. Nico Müller took too many risks and crashed in the chicane. He damaged his right front suspension and rolled out in the run-off zone. The double yellow flags that followed also affected some of the other drivers, but there were still improvements to be made.

No one was able to match the times of Wehrlein and Mortara, but Dan Ticktum improved to third place. Felix da Costa secured the last place in the quarter-finals in fourth. Sam Bird narrowly missed out in fifth with the identical lap time, ahead of Günther and Dennis. David Beckmann, Jake Hughes, Müller and Robin Frijns completed Group B. The latter had to abandon his fast lap due to the Müller accident.

Overview: Formula E qualifying in Monaco

Quarter-finals

QF1: Oliver Rowland vs Norman Nato

The two Nissan drivers began their intra-team duel with an almost identical first sector. However, Nato made a mistake in the second sector and hit the wall in the same place as Müller. He had driven too fast into the chicane. Apparently with slight damage to the car, he drove the lap slowly to the end in order to set a time at all. Rowland thus qualified for the semi-final again without much trouble.

QF2: Jean-Eric Vergne vs Lucas di Grassi

At the start of the second duel between two true Formula E veterans, Vergne initially had his nose in front. Sector 2 went to di Grassi with a slight advantage, but Vergne was slightly faster again in the final part of the circuit. Ultimately, the Frenchman was 75 thousandths of a second better than his long-time rival and advanced to the quarter-finals.

QF3: Dan Ticktum vs. Edo Mortara

After a short delay in qualifying, the third quarter-final continued. Ticktum really turned up the heat in the first sector and took almost three tenths of a second off Mortara! Sectors 2 and 3 also went clearly to the Briton, who ultimately prevailed over the Mahindra driver with a great lap and a half-second lead. Cupra Kiro in the semi-finals again!

QF4: Antonio Felix da Costa vs. Pascal Wehrlein

Wehrlein got off to the much better start in the team-internal duel between the two Porsche drivers. They were almost neck and neck in sector 2 before Wehrlein also took the third section of the track. In the end, he was more than six tenths of a second faster than Felix da Costa and easily made it through to the final four.

Semi-final

SF1: Jean-Eric Vergne vs Oliver Rowland

In the first semi-final, Rowland led the way with a strong first sector that was around two tenths of a second faster than that of Vergne. The championship leader extended his advantage in the second part of the track and went one better in sector 3! With a new track record, Rowland sent Vergne to the second row of the grid and once again qualified for the qualifying final.

SF2: Pascal Wehrlein vs. Dan Ticktum

In this thrilling duel between the qualifying giants in the Porsche camp, Ticktum got off to the slightly better start. Sector 2 was also absolutely neck and neck - both drivers were still within a tenth of a second of each other. Ultimately, however, Ticktum was slightly faster than the world champion in all three sectors and made it through to the final with a lap as fast as Rowland's!

Final: Dan Ticktum vs Oliver Rowland

The duel between the two stars of the previous qualifiers had already taken place twice before, both times in Saudi Arabia: Rowland won in Jeddah (Friday) this year and Ticktum at the 2023 Diriyah E-Prix. This time, Ticktum got off to the better start! The second section of the track also went to the Brit, but then he overdid it! Ticktum hit the wall with his right rear at the exit of turn 15! He finished the lap at walking pace and then rolled out. "Sorry", he radioed. Rowland, on the other hand, completed his lap cleanly and secured his eleventh pole position in Formula E - his third in a row!

The ninth round of the 2024-25 Formula E World Championship season will take place on Sunday morning at 8:00 am (CEST). e-Formula.news will be following the race as usual in the Formula E live ticker - ideal as a "second screen" for real fans!

Results, lap times & starting grid

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