"Masterful drive" - Barnard loses potential Formula E podium in Tokyo due to collision with Mortara

After Taylor Barnard secured another podium in Saturday's race in Tokyo, Sunday's race ended for him in the barriers. Shortly before the end of the race, Edoardo Mortara sent the McLaren into the wall, from which he was unable to free himself. The McLaren team was disappointed to have lost a potential podium. Mortara received a penalty, but assessed the situation somewhat differently.

Barnard's retirement was preceded by a strong defence against Mortara. Despite in Attack Mode, the Swiss driver was unable to find a way past the Briton. As the race progressed, Barnard battled with Dan Ticktum for third place, which he even took over at one point.

In general, it was an extremely close race at the front end of the field. So close, in fact, that on lap 29 some of the drivers took the corners side by side, which ultimately led to contact with the TecPro barrier for the McLaren driver: Mortara braked too late and drove into the rear of Barnard. The contact caused the McLaren's rear suspension to break. The youngster went straight into the wall. In the end, the safety car had to come on track for the damaged McLaren to be recovered.

James: "That was a masterful drive"

Up until then, Barnard had shown a strong race from ninth on the grid and had justified hopes of another trophy. The 20-year-old was correspondingly disillusioned afterwards: "I'm a bit disappointed to have missed out on a potential podium today. After a few challenging races, the team deserved one. We would have had the pace and were in a position to put it all together this weekend."

"That was a masterful drive," McLaren team principal Ian James praised his driver on The Race and continued: "He put in a great defence - especially against those who were behind him in Attack Mode. Something special was on the plan today. Unfortunately, it didn't materialise."

Impressive defensive moves from Barnard, holding off Mortara who was in ATTACK MODE! 🤯👊#TokyoEPrix pic.twitter.com/Q8PGYx5Apz

- Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) May 18, 2025

Mortara: "He took his foot off the throttle maybe 100 metres earlier"

Mortara was given a five-second time penalty for the action and a penalty point on his racing licence. However, he sees the situation slightly differently to the stewards: "We checked the data and there are maybe 300 metres between turns 5 and 6. He (Barnard) took his foot off the throttle maybe 100 metres earlier. That caught me off guard, so I couldn't react in time to avoid the collision. I tried to go as far to the left as possible, but I couldn't avoid him", said the Mahindra driver on The Race.

Despite the unfortunate situation, Barnard and his team leave Tokyo with some points in their luggage. On Saturday, Barnard achieved another strong podium finish in the rain chaos with 3rd place. He is still in a very respectable fourth place in the drivers' world championship with 69 points. Now the focus is on the next "double-header", which will take place on 31 May and 1 June in Shanghai.