Rowland already Formula E World Champion after Tokyo win? "Maybe we can think about it after Shanghai"

Oliver Rowland celebrated his fourth win of the season in Sunday's Tokyo E-Prix race. The Nissan driver finished on the podium for the seventh time in the ninth Formula E race of the season. But even though he is in an extremely comfortable position in the drivers' standings, Rowland does not want to focus too much on the championship just yet.

Is the race for the Formula E drivers' world championship already decided after the "double-header" in Tokyo? After another dominant performance by Oliver Rowland in Japan, many are now almost assuming so. However, things did not look so good for the Brit towards the halfway point of the race.

After starting from pole position and leading the race for several laps, he lost several positions to drivers who had activated their first Attack Mode with 350 kW of power and all-wheel drive before him. When Rowland finally switched to Attack Mode as well - albeit only for two minutes - he got stuck behind Nick Cassidy.

"The race was crazy," describes Rowland at the microphone of the TV World Signal. "Honestly, I didn't do a good job with my first attack mode. I fell too far back and was behind Nick, who also had 350kW. That prevented me from driving further forwards."

"I was pretty disappointed in myself"

"I was pretty disappointed in myself when I realised that everyone had overtaken me with an undercut," Rowland continued. "But I figured out that everybody would kind of undercut me so I thought: 'I've got six minutes, I'll undercut them' and in the end it worked. I knew they would all react. I just had to make the progress on the first lap so it paid off today, but I was a bit lucky."

The plan worked - three competitors ahead of Rowland also activated their second Attack Mode one lap later. The Nissan driver thus gained two positions without a fight and was able to overtake race leader Pascal Wehrlein shortly afterwards due to the longer duration of his Attack Mode. He maintained his lead to the finish.

A special home win for @NISMO and @oliverrowland1 🫶#TokyoEPrix pic.twitter.com/zsDQvF94O6

- Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) May 18, 2025

It was not only a great success for Rowland himself, but also for the manufacturer team Nissan. After narrowly failing to beat Max Günther last year, Rowland secured the Japanese automotive giant's first Formula E home win this time - under the watchful eye of new Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa, who has been in office since April 1 and was present in the Nissan pits. The Japanese national anthem at the podium ceremony was also a moving moment for the numerous fans on site.

"Going into Shanghai I'll have the same approach"

However, Rowland still has a long way to go to realise his dreams, as there are still seven races left in the season: "I've always said that in Tokyo and Shanghai I need to keep pushing to extend the championship lead. Going into Shanghai I'll have the same approach this year and then maybe after that we can start to think about the lead we've got", he explains.

In the championship standings, the Nissan driver has a 77-point lead over his closest rival Wehrlein now after nine of 16 races this season - almost twice as many as the reigning champion! Even three race wins in the upcoming races in Shanghai and Jakarta would not be enough for Wehrlein to oust Rowland from the top spot. The Shanghai E-Prix will also be held as a "double-header" this year on May 31 and June 1.