Wehrlein, Rowland win Misano E-Prix; Daruvala scores first points

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein and Nissan’s Oliver Rowland were the big winners as Formula E’s first outing at Misano delivered plenty of drama. Sunday’s race also saw Jehan Daruvala score his first Formula E points after a charge from P21 to P9.

1. Wehrlein, Dennis tied for championship lead
2. Mahindra walks away with no points

Rowland wins Round 6 after Da Costa’s disqualification

Antonio Felix da Costa won the first of two races at Misano after a late overtake on Rowland. However, he was later disqualified after a post-race check found that his throttle damper spring was “not found in conformity” with the regulations.

With the Porsche driver stripped of his win, Rowland and Nissan inherited their first win of the season. “We expected a tricky race on a track that requires high efficiency, but the car was great. We managed the energy well and the strategy was spot on,” Rowland told Formula E after the race.

Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Maserati’s Max Guenther were promoted to second and third, respectively.

Wehrlein wins Round 7

Rowland looked on course to win back-to-back, but he ran out of energy and crawled to a halt on the very last lap. It turned out to be a technical issue, with Rowland revealing “we had an issue at the start which caused a problem with the lap counter, meaning it thought we had one fewer lap to race than we actually did.”

Wehrlein, who was dealing with battery overheating issues at the time, seized the opportunity to become the first repeat winner this season. Dennis followed him past the chequered flag, followed by Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy.

Daruvala scores first points

Despite showing improved form in the first race, Daruvala walked away with no points after a clash with Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries.

The Indian lined up 21st on the grid for the second race after another poor showing in qualifying. But he pulled off an impressive recovery drive and charged his way into the top 10 on the final lap. He initially finished 10th, behind his teammate Max Guenther, but Max was handed a post-race penalty, promoting Daruvala to P9.

“It feels good to score my first points in Formula E today. We were starting from the back row, but as a team, we decided on a strategy and executed it very well. We stuck to our plans, our communication was clear, and it resulted in my first top 10 finish of the season,” said Daruvala.

“Even after six races, I’m learning all of the time, and I know that there’s still scope for me to learn from today’s race.”

No points for Mahindra

Mahindra endured another difficult weekend with no points scored. Technical issues on Friday left the team with limited data on the new circuit, and this translated into a poor qualifying performance.

“We struggled in qualifying and that put us too far back on the grid for the races, but we made as much progress as possible. It is frustrating after two better races in Sao Paulo and Tokyo, but now we need to go away and understand these issues to come back and be better in Monaco,” said driver Edoardo Mortara.

2024 Formula E championship standings

Wehrlein and Dennis are tied at the top of the standings with 89 points each. Rowland is nine points behind them in third place. Up next on the calendar is the Monaco E-Prix on April 27.

2024 Misano E-Prix results

Also see:

Formula E extends Indian broadcast deal with Sony

Guenther, Maserati wins Tokyo E-Prix; Mahindra disqualified