Rowland Produces World Champion Drive to Seal Title in Berlin as Cassidy Wins Round 14

Al Bawaba

4 days ago

With a masterful drive at the 2025 Hankook Berlin E-Prix Round 14, Nissan's Oliver Rowland clinched the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E Drivers' World Championship, steering his way to fourth and decisively fending off Pascal Wehrlein and TAG Heuer Porsche.Oliver Rowland's bid for the FIA Drivers' World Championship in Berlin was a fierce one, ending strong with a fourth-place finish in Sunday's Round 14, while his rival Pascal Wehrlein faltered when it mattered most. Wehrlein secured pole position for Sunday's Round 14, seemingly poised for victory. The race began with Porsche power dominating, Wehrlein held the lead for a significant portion of the 41-lap encounter, benefiting from the support of his teammate António Félix da Costa and the customer CUPRA Kiro's of Dan Ticktum and David Beckmann.However, the tide began to turn with the ATTACK MODE activations. Despite the high stakes, Rowland showcased his characteristic ambition and aggressive driving, making bold moves that allowed him to capitalise as Wehrlein gradually fell back into a tightly bunched pack. The Porsche driver struggled to regain points-paying positions, opening the door for Rowland.Mid-race, Rowland strategically held his position within the top 10. But on Lap 30, utilising ATTACK MODE, he surged past Robin Frijns (Envision Racing) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) to take the lead. His ascent continued with a second ATTACK MODE boost on Lap 34, propelling him from P9 to the front of the pack in just one lap.With Wehrlein now out of the points, fourth place was all Rowland needed to clinch the title. He wouldn't have to worry about fending off the late charges from Nick Cassidy (Jaguar TCS Racing), who had climbed impressively from 20th on the grid with ample energy, Jean-Éric Vergne (DS PENSKE), or Jake Dennis (Andretti), all benefiting from an ATTACK MODE overlap. The trio swept past Rowland, who wisely held onto fourth as a battle erupted behind him, easing the pressure in the final moments. The Brit held firm, while Cassidy secured the win, making it two victories out of two for Jaguar this weekend, followed by Vergne, Dennis, and Rowland himself, who celebrated his well-deserved championship.Wehrlein, meanwhile, could only manage 16th at the chequered flag - meaning Rowland would be crowned champion. That's the earliest a FIA Drivers' World Championship title has been decided since da Costa took the crown in Berlin, 2020.Nissan have closed the gap in the FIA Teams' World Championship running to Porsche: 226 points to 204. Porsche leads the Manufacturers' standings 342 points to Nissan's 335.
Formula E heads to a double-header season finale at Excel London on 26 & 27 July.
Oliver Rowland, No. 23, Nissan Formula E Team said: 'Honestly, I was just thinking before the race not to have too much damage going into London! I can't believe it, I have no words. It's incredible. I was trying to play it safe but everybody was so aggressive, so at some point I was all in, I was getting stuck in the moves. Thankfully I stayed out of trouble, and it's just unbelievable.'Nick Cassidy, No. 37, Jaguar TCS Racing: 'What an awesome race. Firstly, to be honest I don't want to take the moment from Oli [Rowland] and the Nissan guys - World Champions with a whole weekend to spare is an incredible achievement. Well done to Oliver, he's been a class act all year. For my guys, they called that perfectly, we had a really good car in the race, we kind of knew we screwed up in qualifying and I was a bit upset about that, but the car in the race was fantastic, and that was awesome. Three wins here now, this place didn't used to be kind to me and now it's been an amazing venue for me across the years, so it's really cool to win the last three years here. We've been improving all year - it's no secret that Jaguar are back, the future for the team is very bright. They're going to keep improving a lot, I think that's been obvious the last few weekends, and I had a fantastic car.'Jack Dennis, No. 27, Andretti Formula E said: 'We had a really good race car and the strategy we took into the race was perfectly executed - I had every opportunity to win this race and we got pretty close. I'm not too surprised to be up here, I'm just super happy for myself and for the team, we've been on a real bad luck streak recently so to reward them with a P2 is the least I could do. I'm excited to have this little boost coming into the final stretch, my home race in London - it's needed. It's more for morale, Oliver [Rowland] has already won the championship, so massive congratulations to him - I'm super happy for him, he's a good friend of mine.'
Jean-Éric Vergne, No. 25, DS Penske said: 'I guess I took it a little bit easy at the beginning - it feels nice to be on the podium, especially after the bad luck yesterday. I think another podium yesterday would have been possible, so overall I'm quite happy with the weekend. It was a strong one and the team deserves a little bit of a reward. I'm happy for the guys, it was a good race!'
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