Oliver Rowland went one up to win Race 2 of Formula E weekend in Jeddah EPrix ahead of Taylor Barnard and Jake Hughes.
Jake Hughes launched off the line to jump Rowland for second spot as Barnard led the field away through Turns 1 & 2. Maximilian Guenther sent it into Turn 2 far too hard, his DS PENSKE spearing Antonio Felix da Costa’s Porsche and sending the Portuguese spinning to the back and requiring a visit to the pit lane, and the Round 3 winner out of the race. Ultimately, da Costa would fail to make it back out on-track.
Lap 6 of 31, and Barnard led Hughes, Vergne, Rowland, Ticktum – up from ninth – Bird, di Grassi – the first driver to jump for ATTACK MODE on Lap 4 – Frijns, de Vries and Nato comprised the top 10. A lap later and di Grassi had carved his way without fuss up to second behind Barnard with that initial 50kW four-wheel drive boost. Reigning champion Wehrlein followed di Grassi’s lead to take ATTACK on Lap 6 – managing to work his way through the pack up to third come Lap 9, just behind Rowland and Vergne, and ahead of Barnard – the trio leapfrogging Barnard on the same tour.
Cassidy was next to make an earlier ATTACK MODE activation pay dividends, climbing from 17th at the start to sixth position by Lap 10. Rowland led Vergne, Barnard, Wehrlein, Ticktum, Cassidy, Frijns, di Grassi, Hughes and Beckmann on Lap 11. The Nissan driver had a percentage point of usable energy in-hand on those immediately behind – the Brit sitting pretty again in Jeddah.
Frijns was next through the ATTACK MODE activation loop and clambered from seventh to the front of the pack by Lap 12, a couple of laps into his initial 50kW boost. Evans followed his teammates lead and made his first ATTACK MODE count, sweeping around the outside of Wehrlein at Turn 4 to take fifth, Vergne to take fourth and Barnard to steal a provisional third on Lap 14.
Hughes went for two minutes of ATTACK MODE that same lap, with Rowland following a lap later on Lap 15. Frijns headed the way from the aforementioned but only briefly, as Rowland forced his way by and to a two-second advantage out-front on Lap 16, with the Nissan driver breaking clear to build a cushion. Barnard countered that same lap, with his engineer letting him know he was free to hunt down and close the gap to leader Rowland, while fending off third-placed Vergne just behind. On Lap 18, he was able to make it by the Nissan driver and hit the front once again.
As the pace picked up into the second round of ATTACK MODE activations, drivers really started to set about a 10-lap sprint to the finish. Cassidy again went early with his second 50kW boost to hit third – a gain of 14 places on his grid slot – on Lap 20 but it looked to be Rowland, again, in the box seat with energy in-hand on all those around him – the Nissan driver heading the way via a move up the inside of Barnard’s McLaren at the Bus Stop chicane. Jake Dennis mounted a late charge through his second ATTACK MODE.
Having started 19th, he was in and around the top 10 at the half way stage and on Lap 25 at Turn 13, the Season 9 champion pulled by Rowland for the lead while the latter jumped for his second and final mandatory jolt of ATTACK MODE. Barnard and Vergne went next through the activation loop but Barnard had just under a minute less in ATTACK MODE to utilise versus Vergne ahead in third and Rowland in second. Rowland had to pull the pin and make his 50kW advantage count down at Turn 13 with five laps to run, and duly, he made it by Dennis’ Andretti for the lead – the pair even on energy remaining through the final few laps.
Barnard then got the jump on both Vergne and Dennis into the Bus Stop – taking both drivers, with three titles between them, in one swoop for second place. Last of the front-runners in ATTACK, Hughes made it count with a move for third and a provisional spot on the podium on Vergne into the Bus Stop – and setting about compatriot Barnard. The latter was having none of it into Turn 1, though, and held fast under severe pressure from the Maserati MSG Racing driver.
All that squabbling behind helped Rowland plenty, with the Nissan driver some three seconds ahead in first spot and able to drive to the chequered flag and the win in Round 4. Barnard managed to hold off Hughes with the pair rounding out the podium. Dennis, meanwhile, made a late charge to steal fourth from Vergne.
Here’s how Race 1 panned out
[The story is as per press release]
