Rowland stands by power-saving move that cost him Tokyo E-Prix lead

Oliver Rowland says he “would have probably been swallowed up by more people” had he not backed off on lap 25 of the Tokyo E-Prix, a move that ultimately cost him victory.

The Nissan driver controlled much of the race, but needed to save power in the final 10 laps after a safety car period left his rivals behind him in better shape energy-wise. He backed off on his way to Turn 10, which allowed eventual winner Maximillian Guenther to overtake.

Rowland admits that he’d hoped to capitalize on the Maserati MSG driver’s slipstream and retake the lead before the end of the race, but while the strategy was unsuccessful, he’s not sure he would do anything different if put in the same scenario again.

“The way that Formula E is now, the slipstream’s quite powerful and I was kind of managing to under-consume and keep them behind before the safety car — but I knew that their targets in terms of energy were probably building,” he said. “Unfortunately, after the safety car the target dropped quite significantly and the lap time delta here is quite aggressive in terms of how much time you lose for the energy target coming down so I was kind of in a position where if I’d have stayed out front any longer I would have probably been swallowed up by more people.

“Of course I was trying to keep the lead when the lift … But I think he did a solid job. It’s kind of one of those things — if I did it again, I’m not really sure what I’d do different. Would I have to relinquish the lead maybe a bit earlier and stay in the slipstream? But yeah, I think we maximized what we could, but it was on the table which is a bit frustrating.”

Despite that, Guenther says his charge to the lead “wasn’t that easy” after having to get by Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara for second, then fend off the more efficient Porsche-powered cars of Jake Dennis, Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein behind him.