Oliver Rowland wins in Monte Carlo to extend his championship lead!

Credit: Andrew Ferraro

Nissan superstar Oliver Rowland extended his championship lead with a sensational strategy on the streets of Monte Carlo on Saturday afternoon.

Rowland took the victory after starting second on the grid, alongside pole sitter Taylor Barnard, who could only manage 15th after a collision with Pascal Wehrlein through turn six. However, it was Rowland who mastered racecraft with strategy to take his first win in Monte Carlo.

The championship leader took the chequered flag first ahead of Mahindra's Nyck De Vries who wound up in second position. Jake Dennis completed the podium in third despite a five-second time penalty for overtaking under a Full Course Yellow. 

Dennis might have his teammate Nico Mueller to thank him being able to hold the gap of over five seconds to in the end Edoardo Mortara, who finished fourth. Some fair and good defensive driving saw Dennis able to get up the road and to claim a podium for Andretti.

Rowland has extended the championship lead to 34 points with Pascal Wehrlein now in second place in the championship. His teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa failed to finish after crashing on the final corner.

How round six of 2024/25 unfolded

Saturday had been an action-packed day when E-Prix time rolled around in the afternoon at Monte Carlo, as Formula E returned to go racing in 2024/25 around of the most infamous circuits in world motorsport.

This weekend had been the first ever double round weekend at Monaco, with all of the action taking place across Saturday and Sunday. Saturday had already seen two Free Practice sessions, which were both topped by Dan Ticktum, and the qualifying session.

Taylor Banard was the driver who was able to take pole position for the second time in three races and the second time in his Formula E career. Barnard beat fellow Brit and championship leader Oliver Rowland in the duels final.

Taking pole position was made slightly easier for Barnard after a hit into the wall from Rowland into turn 1 at the start of the lap. However, no grid penalties were needed for Rowland to fix any form of damage so the duo shared the front row for the race start.

Behind them on the second row were Ticktum and Nyck De Vries, who Barnard and Rowland respectively beat in the duels semi final.

The first race at Monaco across the weekend saw the second running of Pit Boost, which has become brand new for Season 11 of Formula E where each driver is to come into the pit lane and serve a mandatory pit stop. This in addition to the two mandatory sets of Attack Mode that each driver has to serve.

​ Round six of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship got underway on the streets of Monte Carlo with Barnard leading into the first corner after a good start from the Brit, with Rowland filtering behind in second.

 A positive start from the Mahindra of De Vries, who moved ahead of Ticktum into third. However, that was the only position change in the top five on the opening lap of the scheduled 29.

Jake Dennis had made a positive start to proceedings by taking sixth from the Envision of Robin Frijns on lap one and on the next lap was hounding the pressure on Wehrlein for fifth to continue the progress.

Nico Mueller came into the pit lane with a right rear puncture which dropped him to the back of the field. It was proving to be a mixed start for the two Andretti drivers as Dennis was fighting near the front and Mueller was 40 seconds off the lead following the pit stop.

Lap four saw the first two to take Attack Mode during the E-Prix, who were Jaguar's Nick Cassidy and Lola Yamaha's Zane Maloney. Cassidy took on board four minutes of the eight mandatory minutes, whereas Maloney took six minutes.

Cassidy was making a lot of progress with the Attack Mode and by the end of it, he found himself up into sixth place and ahead of teammate Mitch Evans. Many drivers had yet to visit their first Attack Modes.

Ticktum had been having a rough time early on in the race but a bold but clean move on Robin Frijns for seventh place. Meanwhile his Cupra Kiro teammate David Beckmann was amongst Jake Hughes and Sebastian Buemi being the latest drivers to take on their first Attack Modes.

Despite being second in the championship Antonio Felix Da Costa started 15th but his race was over when he found the wall after a late and desperate lunge on Edoardo Mortara, who himself was making a lunge on Beckmann.

This saw the deployment of the Full Course Yellow by the Race Director. This was to no doubt change the strategy with regards to the two Attack Modes and the Pit Boost mode. There was no pit boost during the Full Course Yellow and this was not the reason why Maloney made a trip to the pit lane.

Lap 11 and the Full Course Yellow had ended and a slow restart for De Vries and reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein was capitalised by Jake Dennis and the British driver was up to third position, with it then becoming an all-British top three.

Immediately on the restart, it was the other Lola Yamaha car of Lucas Di Grassi who took to the Attack Mode and picked up four minutes of it in his first dosage.

Many cars were battling throughout including the two at the front of the field with Rowland looking to take the lead from Barnard and the pair were getting close together, especially into turn nine on lap 12. 

Barnard gained an advantage though from cutting across the chicane and was obliged to give the place to Rowland and did so and it was the Nissan who led the McLaren with Dennis chasing both of them.

The pioneer of the Pit Boost in Monaco was Cassidy, who served it on lap 14. He was joined in taking the Pit Boost by Andretti's Mueller! Around the same time, it was the first Attack Mode for Robin Frijns and the Nissan of Norman Nato.

After the first Full Course Yellow, it was not long before the second as Mitch Evans had come to a stop in the second sector and looked to have a mechanical issue. However, it was a short Full Course Yellow and racing was back to green with Rowland heading straight for attack mode.

De Vries, Wehrlein, Ticktum and Maximilian Gunther took their first Attack Modes shortly after on lap 16 while there were Pit Boost servings from Mortara, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Prior to this it was Taylor Barnard who took the lead despite Rowland having the attack mode, but through the final corners it was a smart move from the pole sitter and was back in front.

End of lap 16 and into the pit lane was Taylor Barnard, who was part of the next group to take on the Pit Boost. The group also included Dennis and Frijns. The pit lane was becoming very busy as was Attack Modes where strategy was taking full effect and this was to be where big gains and losses were made.

After his Pit Boost, Barnard was into his first Attack Mode and was hoping to make up important ground.

Soon enough it was Rowland's turn to come into the pit lane for the Pit Boost as it was for the majority of the field, while Mueller who came into serve the Pit Boost before the second Full Course Yellow had benefited massively and was ahead of Rowland, De Vries, Dennis and Barnard on the road.

With the lead group in, that left Cupra's David Beckmann in the race lead and Jake Hughes in second but at the end of lap 19 the pair would be in to serve their Pit Boost. This handed the race lead to Nico Mueller, who found it appropriate at that time to take his first Attack Mode.

Also having a strong race and benefiting from strategy was the Jaguar of Cassidy and was in second place and was catching the Andretti at a very quick pace. However, Cassidy had significantly less energy than those around him.

Time for drivers to embark on their second Attack Mode dosages and that included De Vries, Wehrlein, Gunther and Beckmann. Beckmann was though under investigation for a Pit Boost infraction and was penalised with a 33-second time penalty, which was added to his race time at the end of the E-Prix.

After finishing his first Attack Mode, Mueller was immediately into his second Attack Mode, which was four minutes full to keep him ahead of Rowland, who had passed Cassidy at the start of lap 23.

Meanwhile, many had taken their second Attack Mode servings and that included the likes of Jake Dennis and Taylor Barnard, who were in contention for podium places potentially towards the end of proceedings.

De Vries was using Attack Mode to full advantage though and took the lead on lap 24.

Further back there was drama as Wehrlein and Barnard collided with Barnard heading into the wall. However, the British driver was not out of the race and neither was the German driver. Barnard was the driver who came off worst and had to reverse and continue on but his race was ruined.

De Vries was leading but Dennis was applying so much pressure after passing his Andretti teammate Mueller for second place. Rowland had fallen back out of the top four as he went to take his second Attack Mode.

Rowland's pace on Attack Mode was incredibly strong with him flying ahead of both Andretti drivers to second place. Soon enough, he was on the tale of race leader De Vries and although the Dutch driver had done well he could do nothing to prevent the speed from Rowland.

There was one added lap after the Full Course Yellows earlier in the race, this was as Dennis was handed a five-second time penalty for overtaking under the full course yellow, which threw his potential podium into an unlikely scenario. His pace had to be strong.

Muller was doing a great job though of holding the rest of the field up and Dennis was being allowed to build a gap of five seconds to Mueller, in order so Dennis could keep his podium position. Fantastic teamwork at Andretti. 

Out front, the championship leader Oliver Rowland came into the double round at Monaco with pressure on his shoulders, with the 15-point lead in the world championship standings. He showed great strength after failing to take pole position earlier, to take victory on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Rowland had taken his first win at the Circuit De Monaco despite having been there on the podium before in 2019. He judged the race brilliantly using Attack Mode and Pit Boost at the right time and with the win had extended his championship lead after round six to 34 points over now-second place in the championship Pascal Wehrlein.

The Nissan of Rowland took the win ahead of the Mahindra of Nyck De Vries who took second position in a great podium for the team. Jake Dennis managed to take third despite the five-second time penalty and completed the podium finishers.

Completing the top five was Mahindra's Edoardo Mortara and Andretti's Nico Mueller. Mortara pipping Mueller for fourth on the line in a photo-finish style drag race to the chequered flag.

Pascal Wehrlein finished sixth for Porsche and moved up to second in the standings with that result. Dan Ticktum finished seventh ahead of Robin Frijns in eighth. Stoffel Vandoorne and Maximilian Gunther completed the top 10.

Formula E action would return on Sunday in the double round weekend, over two days on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday's E-Prix race day action will begin with Free Practice 3 on Sunday morning.

2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: Round 6 - Monaco E-Prix final classification

1. Oliver Rowland
2. Nyck De Vries
3. Jake Dennis
4. Edoardo Mortara
5. Nico Mueller
6. Pascal Wehrlein
7. Dan Ticktum
8. Robin Frijns
9. Stoffel Vandoorne
10. Maximilian Gunther
11. Sam Bird
12. Jean-Eric Vergne
13. Lucas Di Grassi
14. Norman Nato
15. Taylor Barnard
16. Jake Hughes
17. David Beckmann
18. Nick Cassidy
19. Sebastian Buemi
20. Mitch Evans
21. Zane Maloney
22. Antonio Felix Da Costa *DNF*

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal