After qualifying in P10 in round one after going fastest in his qualifying group one, Rowland fought up the pack to cross the line in P6. He also went fastest in his qualifying group one in round two but started the race in P13, again fighting up places before finishing in P7. The second race was cut short by a safety car and then a red flag; otherwise more points looked possible for Rowland.
Nissan e.dams’ team driver Sebastien Buemi qualified in P17 for round one and raced up to P13. In round two, Buemi qualified in P8 and up to P7 before an incident off the racing line saw him lose grip and make contact with the wall, forcing him to retire.
For Nissan, the all-electric street racing championship brings the excitement and fun of zero-emission electric cars to a global audience. High-performance electric vehicles are a key part of Nissan’s efforts to accelerate the integration of electric vehicles into society.
“It’s great to have season seven finally underway with two action-packed races, but these were not quite the results we wanted, or that we feel we could have achieved,” said Tommaso Volpe, Nissan’s global motorsports director. “Bo
th Oli and Seb showed good race pace, but we were unlucky with Seb’s retirement and the race getting cut short for Oli with the red flag. However, one of our keys objectives in Formula E is to show a global audience just how fast and exciting all-electric cars can be, and these races under the lights in Diriyah did just that.”
For season seven, the race team is connecting its competition in Formula E to Nissan’s production EVs, naming car No. 22 after Nissan’s all-electric LEAF, and car No. 23 after the new Nissan Ariya all-electric crossover SUV.
“An exciting race for the fans with lots of action, incidents and overtaking, but a tough one for the team,” said Gregory Driot, co-team principal of Nissan e.dams. “Oli showed that he and the car had pace by going fastest in both his qualifying groups on the slippery track the drivers faced in qualifying group one, and went on to score solid points for the team. Seb was pushing hard and in his effort to bring some points to the team, unfortunately grazed the wall, but that’s racing. We are looking forward to the next races and will use these 2 rounds to arrive in round three in Rome in April stronger.”
