Formula E title favourites stumble in the rain in Shanghai: "One of the toughest races I have ever driven"

For Formula E's world championship leader Oliver Rowland, things did not go as planned at all on Sunday in the wet race in Shanghai. After a good Saturday, it was only enough for a disappointing 13th place. His closest rival at that time, Taylor Barnard, was also unable to build on his strong result after another podium on Saturday. He suspects a general problem that the Nissan powertrain may have had.

It is currently extremely rare for Oliver Rowland not to be among the front runners in races or not to score any points at all. Sunday's race in Shanghai was one of these rare moments. Even in qualifying, the Briton could only manage 17th place, and all the Nissan-powered cars struggled. Team-mate Norman Nato could only qualify in 21st place. Things went a little better for McLaren with 14th place for Taylor Barnard and 16th place for Sam Bird, but still disappointing.

During the race, Rowland was able to work his way up a few places, but it was not enough for points. "That was a disappointing result today. To be honest, it was one of the toughest races I have ever driven - with the limited visibility due to the spray. It just wasn't possible to get more out of it", said Rowland.

"Nevertheless, the weekend was positive"

"Nevertheless, the weekend was still a positive one on the whole," he says. "Yesterday we were able to pick up a good amount of points, even though the track is not my favourite. We are still in the running for all three championships. That is the focus for the final part of the season."

In the drivers' championship, Rowland is still in first place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein with a comfortable lead of 68 points. However, thanks to the double podium achieved by Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa on Sunday, Porsche is now back in first place in the teams' standings, one point ahead of Nissan. The Japanese brand is still ahead of Porsche in the manufacturers' standings though.

"Possibly a general problem for Nissan"

McLaren's Taylor Barnard also had difficulties in the adverse conditions, but was still able to score a point: "I think we got the absolute maximum out of the car. After yesterday's podium, 10th place and just one point is obviously not where I wanted to finish the race."

In a post-race interview, Barnard also surmised that the Nissan powertrain might have had a general problem: "We just had no grip. I am sure it was a Nissan problem because they were also struggling a bit. We just need to improve the drive in the wet", said Barnard.

The drivers now want to focus on the next race. The twelfth round of the season is scheduled for 21 June in Jakarta, which is slowly but surely entering its hot final phase.