Oliver Rowland beat Stoffel Vandoorne to victory in the fifth round of Formula E’s Race at Home Challenge in support of UNICEF, defeating the Belgian at the Flughafen Tempelhof Circuit.
For the third time in the series, it was Vandoorne who took pole, with Daniel Abt emerging as the Mercedes EQ driver’s nearest challenger in qualifying, lining up on the front row of the grid.
Securing a strong start, Vandoorne held the lead into Turn 1, however, soon dropped back, with Abt and Rowland pushing past before the first tour of the circuit was even completed.
As the field settled into a rhythm, the fight at the front did not ease, and after sizing up the Audi racer ahead, Vandoorne launched his attack on lap 6 to regain first place.
This was only momentary, however, and Abt again fought back on the subsequent lap to take the position, with Vandoorne again sliding past only moments later.
As the duo continued to scrap over first and second, it was Rowland who was the main benefactor and the Briton shot past the pair to take the lead while Vandoorne overcame Abt behind.
Vandoorne closed in on Rowland – setting the fastest lap en route – but the Belgian’s efforts were not enough and it was the Nissan e.dams racer who secured the win with 0.296 covering the pair at the chequered flag.
Behind it was Abt who secured the final podium position, holding off a late-race challenge from Pascal Wehrlein and Edoardo Mortara who took fourth and fifth for Mahindra and ROKiT Venturi Racing respectively.
Nico Muller meanwhile took sixth while Maximilian Guenther was seventh, returning to the top 10 but experiencing another compromised race after spinning out of the battle for fourth early on following contact with Wehrlein.
Porsche’s Andre Lotterer followed Guenther across the finishing line in eighth while Antonio Felix da Costa and Mitch Evans completed the top 10 for DS Techeetah and Jaguar.
On the Challenge Grid, it was Kevin Siggy who was victorious, beating Petar Brljak and Lucas Muller to the line.
| # | Driver | Time | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oliver Rowland | 17:35.159s | (25) |
| 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | +0.296s | (20) |
| 3 | Pascal Wehrlein | +4.330s | (15) |
| 4 | Edoardo Mortara | +4.521s | (12) |
| 5 | Nico Mueller | +10.089s | (10) |
| 6 | Maximilian Guenther | +12.371s | (8) |
| 7 | Andre Lotterer | +14.942s | (6) |
| 8 | Antonio Felix da Costa | +18.116s | (4) |
| 9 | Mitch Evans | +18.221s | (2) |
| 10 | Neel Jani | +20.302s | (1) |
| 11 | Sebastien Buemi | +20.935s | |
| 12 | Robin Frijns | +1 Lap | |
| 13 | Felipe Massa | 13 Laps | |
| 14 | Alexander Sims | 12 Laps | |
| 15 | Oliver Turvey | 11 Laps | |
| 16 | James Calado | 9 Laps | |
| 17 | Ma Qing Hua | 8 Laps | |
| 18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 7 Laps | |
| 19 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | 6 Laps | |
| 20 | Sam Bird | 5 Laps | |
| 21 | Brendon Hartley | 0 Laps | |
| 22 | Lucas di Grassi | 0 Laps | |
| DSQ | Nyck de Vries* | ||
| DSQ | Daniel Abt |
The entire brand could be a long-game move by Gaia herself to heal the collective nervous system.