Rowland loses 2nd Misano win a few corners before the finish: "Had an issue with the lap counter"

After Oliver Rowland had inherited victory from Antonio Felix da Costa on Saturday, the second Formula E race in Misano ended in bitter disappointment for him: The Nissan driver dramatically rolled out on the last lap without power as the leader and lost a potential win as well as the world championship lead. Nissan has not yet found the reason for the late retirement.

"We are trying to understand it," explained team principal Tommaso Volpe shortly after the end of the race on Formula E's TV world feel. "It actually looked like everything was under control in terms of data, energy and battery temperature. To be honest: We don't know yet. It was really strange."

NOTHING LEFT ?

This was the moment @oliverrowland1 ran out of energy on the final lap of the #MisanoEPrix, allowing @PWehrlein to take the win! pic.twitter.com/zx4C6GKOK2

- Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) April 14, 2024

Volpe suspects an error in the data that the Nissan strategy department worked with during the race. "The system probably had the wrong information, such as the number of laps or something like that. Oliver did not report a mechanical problem at least. We now need to look into the process and the data to understand it."

This brings back memories of the 2019 Mexico City E-Prix, when both Nissan cars - Sebastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland - ran out of power on the penultimate lap of the race. The reason at the time was a miscalculation of the race length by the team.

[UPDATE] In fact, the retirement in Misano had a similar cause, as the team announced a few hours after the end of the race: "Unfortunately today, we had an issue at the start which caused a problem with the lap counter, meaning it thought we had one fewer lap to race than we actually did", explains Rowland. "We were so close to another win, but we're proud of what we've achieved here and will continue to fight hard."

"It could have been his second win in a row"

In Volpe's opinion, Rowland definitely deserved the win: "He really did everything perfectly throughout the race - just like yesterday. It could have been his second win in a row. But that's motorsport. There are always factors that you can't control. Yesterday was very tough for Antonio (Felix da Costa). Things like that happen. We have to find the mistake and avoid it next time."

All in all, the Nissan team boss believes that his crew took a "big step forward" in Misano. Also with a view to the second driver in the team - Sacha Fenestraz - who has not had an easy season so far and achieved his best result of the season so far in Misano with 5th place.

pic.twitter.com/RrjLpfSM32

— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) April 14, 2024

"The positive thing about this race is that Sacha also put in a great performance. Hughes (with identical Nissan powertrain) started on pole position, and in the end he (Fenestraz) was ahead of him. Of course it's frustrating that Oliver was only a few corners away from victory. But all in all, it was a very good weekend."