Tokyo E-Prix: Vandoorne’s boost to glory

On a race day defined by disruption and weather-induced uncertainty, Vandoorne and his team’s calculated decision just before the race was suspended ultimately proved decisive. Restarting from the head of the field, the Belgian driver controlled the remainder of the race to secure his third career Formula E win, ahead of Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and McLaren rookie Taylor Barnard.

Persistent rain had earlier forced the cancellation of qualifying – the first such occurrence in Formula E history – with the grid set based on the earlier FP2 times. That placed championship leader Rowland in pole, the Briton having bettered Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara by over six tenths, with Rowland’s team-mate Norman Nato and Barnard making up the second row.

If anything, post qualifying-cancellation, the weather worsened in terms of rainfall. But as the precipitation petered out, so the accompanying high winds did at least assist in drying the surface.

Nevertheless it was a delayed start, with the safety car leading the field for four sighting laps before race control initiated a full standing start. This immediately transformed the Big Sight loop into a live strategic puzzle, as drivers juggled the low grip and limited visibility whilst the teams unleashed their crystal balls for Pit Boost permutations and Attack Mode activations.

Maserati’s ball was clearly the most polished. Vandoorne went hard early to get himself into the Pit Boost window and dive in for a charge on lap 10. No sooner was he boosted than Maximilian Guenther was stranded on track with apparent red car status.

“I had the message coming on my display and basically, one corner later, the car shut down,” he explained. “There was nothing we could have done and it looked like battery failure. I tried a few resets to get going again, but it was more serious than a reset.

“It was frustrating as we knew we had something in hand for the race. I felt mega strong every time I had a gap in front, as I could close it immediately.”

Red car status means red flags, with Vandoorne the clear winner in this situation. A plucky call from Andretti attempted to allow Jake Dennis to emulate some of this scenario with team and driver believing pit entry to be open as they dived for their boost. Alas, the FIA said ‘non’ and the initiative would reward Dennis with his first black flag since his karting days.

“We still need to analyse it, but we as a team believed that the pit entry was open and that was the idea from our side. We met the criteria of the Pit Boost as we were below 60%,” Dennis explained. 

“We thought it was fair game and we could take the Pit Boost, but the FIA believed the pits were closed. Whether we missed this or not, I am not too sure, but obviously we got black-flagged. I think maybe a drive-through or something would have been fairer…”

With the DS Penske cleared and a handful of extra laps added to the tally it was now Vandoorne’s race to lose, whether by misadventure or matters out of his control. Save for a half spin denying him the opportunity to take an E-Prix win by the biggest margin yet, the 2021-22 champ was all good to take his first win since Monaco 2022.

“I actually feel a little bit pissed off after the race, because I nearly threw it away by myself,” mused Vandoorne after the press conference. “Turn one was weird all day with the wet patch. For some reason, it just holds so much more water. I must have just touched a little bit of the wetter part, and the rear just kind of snapped on me.”

Despite the faux pas, it was otherwise planning and some good red flag fortune which led to the win.

“We executed a perfectly planned strategy,” said Stoffel. “It was very ballsy! It made my life difficult at times; after the pit stop with such a low energy target and having to manage the battery of the car.

“There was a lot of communication between myself and my engineer Thibault, but he kept me very calm, managed to have good communication and kept me up to date with the gap behind to the other guys. So I knew exactly how much I could back off and could do the saving that I needed to do.”

Although denied the advantage of an early Pit Boost, championship leader Rowland could seemingly do no wrong, taking second place to power him to a 60-point lead in the drivers’ standings.

“If you start further back in the field you can take the risk of doing the Pit Boost stop earlier, which has paid off today,” said Rowland of Vandoorne’s win, “but that’s impossible to do from the front.

“I got everything out of the car and felt great, especially in the opening stages of the race. It’s a dream to have built up the lead we have in the drivers’ standings and the aim is to continue being consistent as we look to take some pressure off the final rounds of the season.”

Barnard once more showcased his talent and potential by bouncing back from his FP1 dalliance with the barriers to take third place on a day where McLaren’s thoughts were with the victims of the tragic Bicester Motion fire.

“After FP1 the team told me, as long as I bounce back, it doesn’t really matter. And I think I answered the question quite well in FP2. Obviously, with qualifying being cancelled, to start the race fourth was a decent position. Now to stand on the podium at the end of the day. I couldn’t be much happier.”