Oliver Rowland secured victory in Tokyo to extend his championship lead in what was a frantic and strategic race.
The Nissan driver won by making the most of his Attack Mode strategy. Starting from pole, Rowland delayed activating his first Attack Mode, which saw him cycle down to fourth as others who used theirs earlier overtook him.
He chose two minutes for his first Attack Mode phase but got stuck behind Nick Cassidy, who was also in Attack Mode. Rowland managed to overtake Cassidy once his Attack Mode expired, but ultimately lost out to Edoardo Mortara and found himself in fifth place after the first round of activations.
However, while the drivers ahead opted for four minutes of Attack Mode, Rowland had six minutes available.
He activated his second Attack Mode on lap 22 and charged through the field while his rivals were still in normal race mode.
Taylor Barnard, Dan Ticktum, and Pascal Wehrlein all responded by activating their second Attack Mode on lap 23 in reaction to Rowland’s pace.
Rowland rejoined in second and still had 45 seconds more of Attack Mode remaining than race leader Wehrlein.
The Brit stayed close to the Porsche driver, and once Wehrlein ran out of Attack Mode, Rowland made a decisive move on the exit of Turn 15 to take the lead.
In the closing stages, Rowland was low on energy and had to defend hard from Wehrlein, which allowed the chasing pack to close in on the leaders.
As the battle intensified, Mortara collided with Barnard, sending the McLaren driver into the wall and bringing out the safety car. This allowed Rowland to save energy and push flat out on the final lap to seal the victory.
Season Ten World Champion Pascal Wehrlein had to settle for second place for Porsche, while Dan Ticktum secured the final step on the podium for CUPRA Kiro—the team’s first podium since 2018 in Mexico with Oliver Turvey.
Jake Dennis finished fourth after a strong recovery drive, using his first Attack Mode to climb from 14th to 4th. The Season Nine World Champion also benefited from the incident between Barnard and Mortara to solidify his position.
Lucas Di Grassi came home fifth for Lola Yamaha in their home race. The Brazilian was one of the last drivers in the top ten to take his Attack Mode, using it effectively to climb the order and earn ten valuable points for the team.
Jean-Éric Vergne finished sixth for DS Penske, ahead of Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy in seventh.
Sam Bird came home in eighth for McLaren, finishing ahead of Sébastien Buemi, who took ninth place for Envision Racing.
Maximilian Günther rounded out the points-scoring positions by finishing in tenth.
Edoardo Mortara dropped outside the points after receiving a five-second time penalty for his collision with Barnard.
Barnard, Stoffel Vandoorne, and António Félix da Costa failed to finish the race, while Mitch Evans did not start after crashing during qualifying.
