Oliver Rowland begrudgingly admitted that he had to let Maximilian Gunther pass him to ensure he could save enough energy to remain on the podium.
The Nissan driver qualified on pole in the team’s home race in Tokyo. The Brit then controlled the first 25 laps of the 35-lap E-Prix. However, by being out-front he had consumed more energy than the drivers behind him.
He and the team decided to try and drop back behind Gunther to save energy to ensure that he remained on the podium.
“I was just about managing to under-consume and keep him behind before the Safety Car,” said Rowland. “I knew their targets in terms of energy were probably building, and unfortunately after the Safety Car, the target dropped quite significantly.
“The lap time delta here is quite aggressive in terms of how much lap time you lose to the energy target coming down so I was kind of in a position where if I had stayed out any longer then I probably would have been overtaken by more people. So, I had to let him by to save my race.
“I think he did a solid job, it’s one of those things that I think if I could do it again I don’t know what I would do differently. I think we maximised what we could, but it was on the table which is quite frustrating.”
Rowland was still impressed with his weekend and was proud to take pole position in front of the Japanese crowd and the team’s big bosses.
“I think there was an element of having the big bosses in the garage, knowing the expectation and it’s just incredible to see all the support for Nissan. I was glad to put it on pole and if you said to me yesterday that I would have taken the pole and finished in second I would have taken it all day. So, I can’t be too upset with myself.”
