Nissan’s Oliver Rowland produced a remarkable comeback drive to stand on the podium during Round 1 of the 2025/26 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in São Paulo, as Norman Nato showed promising speed throughout the event.
Saturday morning saw an extended FP2 session with both drivers finishing in the top ten, after FP1 was cancelled on Friday because of technical difficulties with radio communications.
Rowland narrowly missed out on the top four in Group A and started 13th, after serving his three-place grid penalty from the Season 11 finale in London. Teammate Nato showed good pace in qualifying, recording the quickest time in Group B as he advanced to the duels, eventually lining up seventh.
Both drivers enjoyed strong starts, with Nato moving into fourth as Rowland elevated himself into the top ten. During their first Attack Mode deployments, both the Frenchman and Brit would lead the race at different stages, but contact between the pair on Lap 17 saw Nato forced to pit and ultimately retire a lap later.
Meanwhile Rowland retook the lead of the E-Prix before a late Safety Car came out with a minute of his second Attack Mode still remaining. Rowland battled hard at the restart and dealt with a late Red Flag well to cross the line in second and secure a solid haul of points to start the new campaign.
Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal of the Nissan Formula E Team, said: “São Paulo is a great place to score a podium on the opening weekend of the new season. Oli and Norman showed great pace in the race and both looked like they were going to collect a good amount of points.
“However, they made contact between them and, while we know these things can happen in motor racing, it’s very frustrating for the whole team. We’ll review the situation to avoid anything like this in the future, but overall we’re happy to collect a trophy and start the campaign in a positive way.”
Oliver Rowland said: “I’m pleased to achieve such a great result after a tough start to the day. We narrowly missed out on the duels in Qualifying and, with the three-place grid penalty carrying over from London, it was always going to be tricky. We were a bit lucky with the timing of Full Course Yellows and Safety Cars, but ultimately, we did an excellent job to gain 11 places and clinch second.”
Full potential
Norman Nato added: “I was happy with how we optimised everything across the weekend even though our performance wasn’t at its full potential. It’s what we’ve been working on compared to last year and I was delighted to be quickest in Group B during Qualifying.
”Our race was going well as we spent the early stages in fourth, and we were aiming for a top-five finish. Unfortunately, we had contact with Oli which forced me to retire. It’s frustrating because we were in a great position to score strong points today, but we’ll now focus on Mexico.”