Motorsport: Rowland gains another Formula E podium

Having started from pole position at the previous race in Paris, even though Rowland is in his first season of the electric-powered races, the Sheffield race-ace again topped the times in the Monaco E-prix super-pole shoot-out.

Unfortunately, the Nissan e.dams team driver crashed out of the lead in that race, and also carried over a three-place grid penalty for Monaco after causing a Paris collision, so Rowland was demoted to start from 3rd on the grid.

Around the Principality’s tight street circuit, in 3rd-place Rowland was chasing Pascal Wehrlein, when at a quarter distance the German locked-up his brakes at the end of the pit-straight into Sainte-Devote.

Not hesitating at the chance, Rowland seized 2nd-place and then chased after race leader Jean-Eric Vergne.

Into the closing stages, Rowland was running 2nd in a four-car train nose-to-tail in the final few corners, darting his Nissan e.Dams IMO1 from side-to-side to find a way through to the lead.

Vergne resisted the challenges, so Rowland took the flag for the rookie-racer’s second runner’s-up spot of his Formula E debut season.

“You come here and you already know it’s very difficult to overtake, so have a target to maximise qualifying and I think that’s what we did today”, revealed a champagne-soaked Rowland.

“To be honest, finishing second after a three-place grid penalty is amazing, but I think that more than anything today, I’m happy with the race performance which was probably my first good race and I felt I made a good step in my driving today and understanding of the energy management. So all-in-all I’m very positive”.

The results mean that Rowland has leapt four places up the championship points table to 8th-place.