Rowland cruises to Jeddah E-Prix victory and extends points lead

Oliver Rowland dominated the second race of the Jeddah E-Prix to claim his second win of the season. The Nissan driver crossed the line 5.844s clear of polesitter Taylor Barnard after a conservative run early in the race allowed him to push harder later on.

Barnard fell from the lead early on as drivers cycled through their first uses of Attack Mode, with subsequent battles for position allowing Rowland to get away. Differering Attack Mode strategies between the pair proved to be crucial, with Rowland having six minutes of his second use to Barnard’s four, the allocation of the extra power running out before he could make more of a dent in Rowland’s lead.

Barnard then had to fend off a hard-charging Jake Hughes – the last of the top five drivers to deploy his second Attack Mode – in the final two laps.

Hughes looked up the inside of Barnard going into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap of the 31-lap race, but couldn’t make the move stick and being forced off track. He kept on Barnard’s tail through the rest of the circuit but came under pressure from Jake Dennis, who’d used Attack Mode himself to leap from 19th on the grid to fourth, passing Jean-Eric Vergne in the Turn 14-15-16 chicane before attempting a similar move, albeit unsuccessfully at the final chicane.

The podium was the first all-British podium in Formula E history, with Dennis following home in fourth to ensure the top four positions were locked out by drivers from the UK.

Nick Cassidy and Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed similar charges through the grid, having started 17th and last respectively, but finished fifth and sixth, while Jean-Eric Vergne fell out of podium contention late on, being consumed by those around him with energy and Attack Mode advantages, en route to seventh.

Pascal Wehrlein recovered from an early qualifying exit to finish eighth ahead of Dan Ticktum, with Edoardo Mortara salvaging a point on what was a tough day for Mahindra.

Nico Mueller took 11th for Andretti ahead of Sam Bird who had to fight back from a 5s penalty early in the race for not stopping after venturing off track at Turn 10. He also salvaged the fastest lap on the penultimate lap.

Mitch Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa and Maximilian Guenther all failed to finish, Evans’ race coming to an end on lap 25 after a brake-by-wire hardware issue, while Guenther and da Costa were caught up in opening lap incidents.

The win extended Rowland’s advantage at the top of the championship to 17 points, while Barnard’s third podium from four races this season moves him up to second, 12 points ahead of da Costa, who entered the Jeddah weekend as the championship leader.

Nissan moves to the fore in the teams’ championship, with NEOM McLaren back up to second at TAG Heuer Porsche’s expense, while the Japanese brand maintains its lead in the manufacturers’ championship ahead of Stellantis which moves up to second. Porsche again slipped to third.