IN a dramatic and rain-soaked second Monaco E-Prix of the weekend, Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi ended a six-year winless drought with a measured, tactical drive from eighth on the grid.
The Swiss driver’s victory – his third at the iconic circuit – came after mastering the tricky conditions and perfectly timing his Attack Mode, cementing his status as the most successful driver in Formula E history with 14 FE career wins, which surpassed his previous tied record of 13 wins with Lola Abt driver Lucas Di Grassi.
After a disappointing race in round 6, Buemi’s racing prowess came through in battles against Porsche’s Antonio Felix Da Costa, the DS Penske duo of Jean-Eric Vergne and Maximilian Gunther, Mahindra’s Nyck De Vries, and the race’s polesitter, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland.
“I thought that I would never win again at some point. You know, you need a bit of luck, a bit of timing, the right car, the right team, and today everything just came together, so I’m so happy. I’m actually speechless because it’s been a long time.”
The winner from the first round of racing in Monaco, Oliver Rowland, tried to hold his pole position to grab a back-to-back win through an intense battle against the top five, but managed to take second place, and Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy crossed the start/finish line to take third.
Buemi won his last FE race nearly six years and 78 races ago, in the New York City E-Prix in July 2019, and won season two of the FE championship. His time since in Formula E had been raised in past conversations considering his drought of race wins, and the Swiss driver himself considered his borrowed time in the cockpit.
“You’re a competitor. You go again and again, but of course, at some point you doubt yourself,” he admitted post-race.
“You think, ‘I can’t do it.’ I was teammates with those two guys (Cassidy at Envision Racing and Rowland at Nissan), and at some point they were a lot better than me.
“So you’ve got to work out. If you keep pushing, at some point you try to learn from your mistakes and get better. I think that that car never suited my style very much, but, you know, I’m trying to develop still,” Buemi said.
When the race went green at the start, De Vries and Rowland led the battles on the grid for first, pushing through the Tabac (turn 12) and Swimming Pool (turns 13-16), where Rowland held on until he activated attack mode on lap ten.
CUPRA Kiro’s Dan Ticktum caused the first yellow flag of the race after he hit the wall coming up on a turn but recovered and rejoined at the back of the grid to conclude his downturn from what was an optimistic start to his weekend.
Andretti’s Nico Mueller caused the second yellow flag and was the second retirement, after Lola’s Lucas Di Grassi, when he too hit the metal barrier on turn three.
Buemi made contact with Da Costa and Guenther but succeeded with his double overtake on Grand Hôtel Hairpin (turn six) into Mirabeau Bas (turn seven). Ahead of him, Nissan’s Rowland battled Vergne at the Nouvelle Chicane (turn nine), stealing the lead just at the end of the chicane into Tabac (turn 12).
Their two-way battle turned into a three-way when De Vries attempted a double overtake while Buemi closed in on the top three on lap 18. Three laps later, on lap 21 and with a strategic move for attack mode, Buemi closed in on De Vries from second place, caught the Mahindra driver on the exit of the first corner up Beau Rivage (turn three), and into first, where he led for Envision until the chequered flag.
Behind Buemi, the remaining podium spots were battled for between Rowland, De Vries, and Vergne, as they used up their attack modes in the last stages of the race. It was on lap 26, where Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy, who had been quietly making his way up from 18th place, used his attack mode to overtake Vergne for fourth, while Rowland secured second place two laps before as he trailed merely four seconds behind leader Buemi.
In a daring inside attack, Cassidy moved on De Vries on Mirabeau to grab third place, which Da Costa capitalised on to steal fourth place from De Vries, pushing him down to fifth. The third-placed Jaguar and fourth-placed Porsche fought down the last sector of the race, but Cassidy held off the Portuguese driver to the chequered flag and his first podium of the season.
Jean-Eric Vergne took sixth place, with seventh, eighth, and ninth places claimed by Pascal Wehrlein, Günther, and Andretti’s Jake Dennis, respectively. Maserati MSG Racing gained points in their home race through Stoffel Vandoorne’s tenth-place finish to complete the top ten.
Buemi’s win lifts him to tenth in the drivers’ standings, while Rowland’s consistent form extends his championship lead to 115 points – well ahead of Da Costa, who now sits second with 67, just one point clear of Wehrlein.
The championship moves from the storied streets of Monaco to the neon-lit avenues of Tokyo; carrying the spirit of high-stakes racing travels east. The Tokyo circuit, renowned for its technical 18-turn layout and narrow, fast sections, promises a new kind of gamble for the grid.
Last year’s race delivered electric battles and a maiden victory for Maximilian Günther. Will the dice favour a repeat winner, will Rowland’s momentum continue, or could a wildcard driver seize the jackpot and add yet another name to FE’s diverse list of victors? The answers will be found as the championship doubles down for two races in Tokyo on 17 and 18 May.
