Formula E

Nissan Formula E Team back on the podium in Berlin

May 11, 2024

5 min Reading

Oliver Rowland spraying champagne on the Berlin E-Prix podium

Rowland takes fifth top-three finish of Season 10, as Fenestraz continues points scoring streak

Nissan Formula E Team continued its strong form in the 2023/24 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Berlin, with Oliver Rowland securing a podium finish in third, while Sacha Fenestraz scored points for a fourth successive race in ninth.

Following a tough qualifying, the duo lined up 15th and 16th on the grid at the revamped Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit for the first of a double-header in the German capital.

Moving forwards at the start, the pair settled into the peloton-style race, with all drivers looking to conserve energy and the field running as a pack.

As he has done so successfully in Season 10, Englishman Rowland worked his way into a strong position in the early stages, despite losing part of his front wing in contact. Staying in the leading battle throughout, Rowland was heavily involved in close fights and made several excellent overtakes to gain 12 positions and finish the E-Prix in third position, taking his fifth podium of the season and moving up to third in the Drivers’ Championship.

Franco-Argentine driver Fenestraz followed his teammate through, and found himself in a promising position in the second half of the race, although an incident caused damage and dropped him down the field. However, the driver of the #23 car recovered well in the final laps, making some good moves to clinch ninth, his fourth consecutive points finish to climb to 11th in the standings.

The result sees the squad move up a position in the Teams’ Championship, sitting third ahead of Round 10 tomorrow.

Oliver Rowland on track in Berlin, with an airplane in the background

Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal, Nissan Formula E Team: “Another dramatic day, we’re getting used to those! The day panned out roughly the way we expected, as at the moment we are stronger in the race than in qualifying. Our one-lap pace was disappointing, both drivers had difficulty getting the tires into the right window and that led to the poor performance. However, we recovered really well, Oli did a great job to take his fifth podium of the season and Sacha also drove strongly. He was unlucky to have contact, but worked his way back up the order to score points again. Our strategy was good and the drivers made a lot of positive moves, so we are happy with today and will now look to prepare for tomorrow and to score more points.”

Oliver Rowland

“It was an intense race, our plan was to move through the field quickly after a difficult qualifying. We managed to do that well, but I used a lot of energy to get to the front, which meant we had to manage later on. I had to be really careful out there, being overly-aggressive could cause contact, but not racing hard enough would result in losing positions, so there was a balance to find. It was tough, but I enjoyed it! We again showed our positive pace, which is encouraging. Now we need to focus on qualifying, to start closer to the front, which will allow us to manage our energy better towards the end of the race.”

Sacha Fenestraz

“I was a bit unlucky today, a couple of moments cost us a really good chance of strong points. It was an up-and-down race, I started a long way down the order and made our way up well in the first part. Then I had two separate occasions of contact, dropping almost to the back of the field before a good finish and more points. It’s a positive to be in the top-10 for four races in a row, of course we want to be closer to the front and we believe the potential is there, but this is part of the learning experience in Formula E. We’ll keep pushing for tomorrow and target more points.”

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