The ‘student’ – Taylor Barnard – managed to snag pole position from the ‘teacher’, Oliver Rowland. But, as it often does, experience won out in the end. Rowland, who has a karting school where Barnard actually learned the ropes, pulled off a masterclass to take the win in the second Jeddah E-Prix race.
Rowland, driving for Nissan, started in second position and just waited for the perfect moment to strike. As he put it, “The key was the beginning of the race, not wasting energy and enduring the rhythm” – and then finding the right time to attack. He ended up winning comfortably, with almost six seconds to spare, which is pretty unusual in Formula E.
This victory marked Rowland’s second win of the season, following his previous one in Mexico, and he’s still leading the World Cup. Meanwhile, Barnard, despite not taking the top spot, got his best result in Formula E yet and showed he’s definitely a contender, even as a rookie. He demonstrated his bravery, defending against attacks from the Maserati of Hughes in a pretty intense finale.
With this result, the young McLaren star not only made it back onto the podium but also moved into second place in the World Cup, just 17 points behind Rowland. This has got to be a boost for the papaya team, who had a lot of guests at the race, given that the Bahraini fund backing them is basically their home crowd.
Günther and Da Costa, Out of the Running
The race didn’t get off to a great start for everyone, though. Günther, who won the previous day, and Da Costa both had a pretty rough time. Günther took a track exit, and between Da Costa’s puncture and Günther’s broken front wing, they were the first two to abandon the race. Later on, Evans would also drop out. The rest of the race was all about rhythm and energy management, with no yellow flags and no Pit Boost, which made for a pretty thrilling spectacle, especially in the chicanes.
Ticktum managed to get the Spanish team Kiro Cupra into the points, finishing 9th in a part of the field that was super combative, with positions changing left and right thanks to overtaking and attack mode activations. The race really didn’t give anyone a chance to catch their breath.
In the meantime, Vandoorne, who was sanctioned after qualifying and had to start from the back, pulled off an impressive recovery to 6th place. And for Porsche, Wehrlein achieved their best result with 8th place, which isn’t too bad considering their weekend wasn’t exactly stellar.
The next race is going to be on April 12 in Miami, and it’s shaping up to be pretty spectacular, with the city center circuit promising a lot of excitement. Before that, there will be the Evo Sessions, where personalities like footballer Sergio Kun Agüero will get to test out Formula E cars, all covered by us, of course.
Jeddah E-Prix Classification (2)
- Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
- Taylor Barnard (McLaren) +5.844s
- Jake Hughes (Maserati) +6.855s
- Jake Dennis (Andretti) +7.214s
- Nick Cassidy (Jaguar) +7.487s
- Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati) +8.005s
- Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) +8.400s
- Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) +11.517s
- Ticktum (Cupra Kiro) +14.910s
- Edo Mortara (Mahindra) +15.964s
World Cup Classification
- Oliver Rowland (Nissan) – 68 points
- Taylor Barnard (McLaren) – 51 points
- Antonio Félix da Costa (Porsche) – 39 points
- Maximilian Günther (DS Penske) – 37 points
- Jake Hughes (Maserati) – 27 points
- Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) – 26 points
- Mitch Evans (Jaguar) – 25 points
- Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) – 25 points
- Jake Dennis (Andretti) – 25 points
- Nick de Vries (Mahindra) – 24 points