Formula E

Nissan Formula E Team takes second place in front of home crowd at Tokyo opener

May 17, 2025

5 min Reading

Rowland’s podium sees Japanese outfit regain the lead of all three championships

Nissan Formula E Team secured second place with Oliver Rowland in a rain affected Tokyo E-Prix today. Having achieved the fastest time in FP2, the Brit lined up on pole position after qualifying was cancelled due to bad weather. He drove brilliantly in the tricky conditions to claim the team’s sixth podium of the campaign. Meanwhile, Norman Nato lined up in third and was in points contention in the earlier stages of the race, but struggled with grip and ended up crossing the line 15th.

The result sees Rowland extend his lead in the Drivers’ Standings to 60 points, the largest in Formula E history at this stage in the season, while Nissan Formula E Team moves back to the top of the Teams’ Championship. On the constructors’ side, Nissan remains firmly in first in the Manufacturers’ Standings ahead of Sunday’s event.

Qualifying gets underway tomorrow at 10:20 (UTC+9) local time, with lights out at 15:00.

Oliver Rowland

Qualifying: P1

Race: P2 (+18 points)

Norman Nato

Qualifying: P3

Race: P15

Standings after Round 8:

Teams’ Championship – P1 (144 points)

Manufacturers’ Championship – P1 (225 points)

Oliver Rowland – P1 (133 points)

Norman Nato – P19 (11 points)

Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal, Nissan Formula E Team: “We’re pleased to take second place with Oli at the end of a very eventful day with bad weather. The Japanese fans braved the conditions to still give us their amazing support, and we’re proud to have secured a podium with so many of our colleagues and top management in attendance – we definitely got that “home race” feeling today! Qualifying was cancelled due to heavy rain, and we gained the pole and third position from our FP2 ranking, which was the same as what we achieved yesterday in FP1, though in completely different conditions. So, we had a reasonable expectation that we would have started close to the front in any case. In the end we only missed out on the win due to the red flag, but Oli achieved his sixth podium of the season and looked comfortable with the car throughout, so we’re very pleased overall. On the other side of the garage Norman struggled for grip, and we need to understand what went wrong because his performance all the way up to the race was very good. We’re now again leading all three championships which is fantastic, but we need to ensure that we can score points with both cars to maintain our position until the end of the season.”

Oliver Rowland

“I’m delighted to take second place as it’s another solid points haul for us in the championships battle. If you start further back in the field you can take the risk of doing the Pit Boost stop earlier which has paid off today, but that’s impossible to do from the front. I got everything out of the car and felt great, especially in the opening stages of the race. It’s a dream to have built up the lead we have done in the Drivers’ Standings’, and the aim is to continue being consistent as we look to take some pressure off the final rounds of the season. Tomorrow’s event is going to be very different, and we know qualifying will be important at a track where overtaking is difficult. However, we’ve been strong in all conditions on this track so far, so I’m confident for tomorrow’s race.”

Norman Nato

“We started the weekend really well with strong results in both practice sessions and lined up P3. However, in the race I struggled with a lack of grip in similar conditions to what we had in FP2. We need to understand what happened to our performance between the sessions as we made a small change in the lead up to the start. The positive is that there is another round tomorrow and we’ve looked strong in all conditions this weekend, so we’ll aim for an improved result.”

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