The Nissan Formula E Team earned its maiden pole position of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship during Round 5 with Norman Nato, as the Frenchman crossed the line first but missed out on victory due to a post-race penalty.
In qualifying, Nato advanced into the duels and fought his way through to the final, where he produced a stunning lap to take his first-ever Julius Baer Pole Position trophy. Teammate Oliver Rowland missed out on the top four in a tightly contested Group A, starting the event from P16.
As the race got underway in the Sunshine State, Nato held the lead off the line and remained competitive, constantly battling in the top five, as Rowland saved energy while advancing through the field.
On Lap 22, there was a red flag as Nato sat in sixth and Rowland 11th, with both having six minutes of Attack Mode left to use. At the standing restart, the drivers immediately took the additional 50kW of power as they made several overtakes, meaning Nato crossed the line first while Rowland finished fourth.
Double points finish
However, niether driver was able to complete their Attack Mode due to the unfortunate timing of the red flag which impacted their strategies, meaning they received post-race ten-second time penalties. Once applied, Nato ended up in sixth and Rowland in 10th, still ensuring a double points finish for the squad.
Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal of the Nissan Formula E Team, said: “It was a weekend filled with ups and downs, especially with Norman taking the win on track but classifying in P6 due to the penalty.
“The red flag came at the worst possible time for our strategy and eventually cost us a lot of points. Despite this, we’re delighted to see Norman’s strong performance taking his first-ever pole position as well as a solid haul of points during the race.”
Oliver Rowland said: “We were so close to turning around a bad qualifying during the race as we crossed the line in fourth, but unfortunately, we got the penalty for Attack Mode misusage, meaning I finished 10th.
We got unlucky and sometimes these things happen in motor racing, however the pace we showed as a team today during the race was a massive positive heading forward.”
Norman Nato added: “It’s great to take my maiden Formula E pole position and also a solid haul of points. It could’ve been even better without the penalty which denied us the victory, but it shows we were strong to have still finished P6 despite the ten-second penalty. I’ve definitely gained confidence moving forward and taking pole as well as sixth is still a solid result which we’ll look to build on.”
Formula E gets back underway on the weekend of May 3rd-4th with the first ever double-header around the streets of Monte-Carlo.