Zane Maloney scores his 1st Formula E point in Sao Paulo: "I'm pleased, but of course looking for a lot more"

It had been a long time coming - but in his 17th Formula E race in Sao Paulo, Lola Yamaha ABT driver Zane Maloney finally scored his first point in the electric world championship. The man from Barbados was initially unlucky with a race interruption that spoilt his attack mode strategy. In the end, however, he was still able to celebrate.

The season opener started anything but ideally for Lola Yamaha ABT in Sao Paulo: The cancelled first FP1 session meant that the team missed out on important kilometres that it would have needed to collect setup data. This was followed by qualifying, where Maloney and team-mate Lucas di Grassi both had to park their cars with defective front driveshafts. As a result, the drivers started from the last row on the grid: Maloney started from 19th, di Grassi from 20th.

Despite an eventful race with several interruptions, Maloney consistently fought his way forwards. He activated his attack mode for the first time in the middle of the race, after which the focus switched to energy management. When he drove over the loop for attack mode for the second time, the red flag followed shortly afterwards as a result of the serious accident involving fellow competitor Pepe Marti. As a result, Maloney was no longer able to benefit from the additional 50 kW of power.

After the restart of the race, Maloney saw the chequered flag in eleventh place, but then benefited from a penalty for Andretti driver Felipe Drugovich, who was knocked back from fifth to twelfth position. Drugovich had received a time penalty of five seconds for speeding under full-course yellow.

The 22-year-old Lola driver thus secured his first points in the Formula E World Championship after finishing his rookie season in 2024/25 with no points. In Miami, he was already within touching distance of the points when he crossed the finish line in tenth position. However, he dropped out of the points at the time due to a time penalty - Maloney had not stopped completely after missing a chicane.

Preston: "This was one of the targets we had for him"

"I'm pleased to have scored my first point in Formula E but of course I'm looking for a lot more than that so we will keep pushing and hopefully have more success in Mexico," said Maloney after the race. Nevertheless, it was not an easy start for his new team boss Mark Preston. Maloney's point remained the only point of the weekend: Team-mate Lucas di Grassi retired after a collision with Mahindra driver Edoardo Mortara.

"It has been quite a difficult day for us in the first race of the Season," admits Preston, who took over the reins of the team from Thomas Biermaier at the start of the season. "However, a real positive for the team is that Zane was able to score his first point in Formula E which was one of the targets we had for him for the first three rounds of his second season in the Championship, so it's great he was already able to achieve that today. We are now looking forward to Mexico, we have lots to do over the next few weeks."

Further action for Formula E will happen in the new year: the Mexico City E-Prix will take place on 10 January 2026.