Hello and welcome to my review of race 1 of 2026 TDK Tokyo ePrix. 2 teams have special liveries for this weekend as Nissan Formula E Team have a special "night mode" livery and Andretti Formula E have decked their cars out in the colours of Japanese automobile lifestyle brand Liberty Walk. Nissan's livery sees their car in 2-tone grey (glossy charcoal and matte carbon) similar to what is used with NISMO, their performance brand, which makes sense it also coincides with the launch of Nissan LEAF NISMO in Japan. If you don't know the colours of Liberty Walk, then it is blue and grey and if still need further help then the it is livery of Brian O'Conner's (Paul Walker's character) Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R from 2 Fast 2 Furious. Speaking of Andretti and Nissan, the latter will supply powertrains to the former for Gen 4. Also this is a PitBoost race.
The next Formula E race will be the 2026 Hankook London ePrix doubleheader, with the race 1 on 15th August 2026 at 14:00 UTC and race 2 on 16th August also at 14:00 UTC. You can find out where to watch it here.

Qualifying

Group A consisted of: Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland, Jake Dennis, Nico Mueller, Nick Cassidy, Felipe Drugovich, Joel Eriksson, Lucas Di Grassi, Taylor Barnard, and Norman Nato. After a crash in Free Practice 2, Felipe did not participate as damage necessitated a change of tub (main part of the car which houses the driver). The top 4 in group A and thus made it to the Duel stage were: Jake, Nico, Nick, and Taylor.
Group B went next and consisted of Mitch Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa, Edoardo Mortara, Sebastien Buemi, Nyck de Vries, Josep Maria 'Pepe' Marti, Jean-Eric Vergne, Dan Ticktum, Max Guenther, and Zane Maloney. Jean-Eric would pick up a 3-place grid penalty after impeding Zane through turns 2 and 3, while Zane has 20-place grid penalty for a change in gearbox (legacy from his crash last time out in Shanghai) and will also have to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty. The 4 that made it into Duel stage from group B were: Antonio, Edoardo, Jean-Eric, and Dan.
The 1st Quarter-Final was between Nick and Nico, with the latter winning by 0.465 seconds while the 2nd Quarter-Final was between Taylor and Jake with the former winning by 0.07 seconds. Quarter-Final 3 was between Jean-Eric and Edoardo, which saw the latter advance by a 0.432 seconds after lining up by pit exit first because Jean-Eric had a technical issue that initially prevented him from leaving the garage, while the final Quarter-Final was between Dan and Antonio which saw the latter moving on by 0.106 seconds. Semi-Final 1 was between Jake and Nico, which the former won because Nico crashes hard at turn 11 and Semi-Final 2 was between Antonio and Edoardo, with the latter winning by 0.074 seconds. The Final saw Jake winning by 0.052 seconds to become first driver not named Oliver Rowland to score the pole position for a Tokyo ePrix race.

Race

Overall Drivers' Championship

Dan Ticktum wins the ePrix from Jake Dennis in 2nd and Nick Cassidy in 3rd, meaning this season has the 2nd highest number different race winners in a Formula E Season (Season 7 holds the record at 11). Turn 7 is a problem corner as all but 2 incidents this race occur in this corner as on lap 1 alone there are 3: Antonio Felix da Costa v Nico Mueller, Norman Nato v Pascal Wehrlein, and Sebastien Buemi v Nyck de Vries. The Antonio-Nico incident occurs as Nico tries to stick down the inside of turn 7 but doesn’t have enough of an overlap on Antonio that the Portuguese should concede the corner to the Swiss driver and thus contact with the wall is made and Nico has a front left puncture. I think the problem is that the track narrows on the exit of turn 6, so you can get run along the car on the outside of turn 6 fine but cannot complete the pass into turn 7, for which you have the inside for. We are likely to get a new layout for next year as Gen4 will be noticeably bigger than Gen 3 and I hope we fix the turn 6/7 section by it having a consistent width throughout so we can stop the bottlenecking. The Norman-Pascal incident is Norman running into the back of Pascal which happens because he is more preoccupied with the car on his right (Max Guenther) than the car ahead (Pascal) and Pascal probably slows more suddenly because of the aforementioned incident causing a bit of a stack-up. I think this is another incident that if it had happened prior to the Madrid ePrix, then no penalty would have been awarded. Sebastien’s incident with Nyck is him running into the rear right tyre of the Dutch driver and the Swiss driver’s front wing cracks and punctures Nyck’s tyre. Both Norman and Sebastien are penalised with a 5-second time penalty which they serve during their pit stop. The next incident is on lap 17 in turn 15 as Sebastien, in Attack Mode, attempts to overtake Edoardo on the inside and Edoardo makes a late small defensive move and contact is made through the corner before Sebastien out-accelerates him on exit. The stewards deem this to be Sebastien’s fault and award him post-race a 5-second penalty converted to 3-place grid drop, although to be honest this is at worst a racing incident and at best a non-issue as I think that it is Edoardo’s move that causes contact to made. However, Formula E’s overtaking guidelines mean that any inside overtakes require you to have some overlap with the car in front by the time you hit the deceleration point for the car in front to give you racing room and Sebastien obviously wasn't. Although Sebastien would inadvertently cause the next incident as he would begin to slow down and back the pack up, upon instruction from his team, to help his teammate who had just pitted for his PitBoost. This stack-up allows Pascal to find room on the outside of Antonio through turn 6 and attempts to re-enact what his teammate did on lap 1 in turn 7. Luckily for Pascal he doesn't get a puncture but instead gets suspension damage and pays Antonio back by feeding him into the wall in turn 8, ruining his race. The stewards award a 10-second time penalty which he serves as he would return to the to finish 8 laps down and not be classified (anything to avoid a grid penalty). My opinion on the Pascal-Antonio incident: that John Cleland quote about Steve Soper from the 1992 BTCC Finale - the move was never on and the incident in turn 8 was just blatant and made it 10-second penalty. The final incident is between Joel Eriksson and Pepe Marti on lap 33 where Joel moves under deceleration into turn 10 against the Spaniard. I can't say what exactly happens as we don't see the replay, but moving under deceleration is treated as the same as moving under braking only with less foot pedal movement and such move are considered dangerous, hence a 5-second penalty issued post-race converted to a 3-place grid drop as Joel finished outside the top 10.
The top 6 in the driver's standings under the alternative format:

1. Mitch Evans (+1)
2. Pascal Wehrlein (-1)
3. Jake Dennis (+2)
4. Oliver Rowland (+2)
5. Antonio Felix da Costa (-2)
6. Nico Mueller (-2)

All drivers have more points under the alternative format compared to their real life totals, with the one who has the most points compared to real life is Max Guenther, who has 50 more points under the alternative format (71) compared to real life (21). There are differences between the standings and the driver who gains the most position's under the alternative format is Pepe Marti, who gains 3 places under alternative format to be 9th compared to real life standings where he is 12th. The driver who loses the most positions is Nick Cassidy who drops 4 places to be 12th under the alternative format, but is 8th in real life. Nyck de Vries, Taylor Barnard, and Max are all now mathematically eliminated.
Below are the overall Drivers' Championship standings:

Customer Trophy for Drivers

The class is won by overall winner Dan Ticktum with 2nd in class and overall going to Jake Dennis, and 3rd in class to Pepe Marti. Jake leads from the start until lap 21 when he pits and hands the lead to Sebastien. Sebastien pits on lap 24 and hands the lead to Pepe, who pits a lap later meaning the class leader after the pit stops is Dan. Dan leads until lap 29 where he is passed by an Attack Mode-powered Jake Dennis on the straight between turns 15 and 16. Jake holds the lead for the rest of the race until the final lap where his car goes on an emergency energy save mode on the same straight that he passed Dan back on lap 29 giving Dan the opportunity to overtake him for the lead into turn 16 to win both the class and the ePrix. Despite winning, Dan Ticktum is now mathematically eliminated from Trophy contention.
Below are the Customer Trophy for Drivers standings:

Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy

The winner of the class is Pepe Marti, with 2nd going to Joel Eriksson and 3rd to Felipe Drugovich. Nico Mueller leads for 7 corners before his incident with Antonio Felix da Costa makes him irrelevant for the rest of this race. The lead therefore inherited by Joel Eriksson on the straight between turn 15 and 16 and he leads until lap 18 when he pits and hands he lead to Pepe Marti who leads until his pit stop on lap 25 and Joel Eriksson re-inherits the lead. Joel leads until lap 33 where Pepe overtakes him thanks to Attack Mode somewhere on the circuit after turn 10, most likely on the exit of turn 15, to go on and win the class. Right now, the top 4 are separated by 26 points with 3 rounds to go, which is a rarity for this championship.
Below are the Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy standings:

Overall Teams' Championship

Jaguar TCS Racing still lead the standings under both formats with Porsche Formula E Team in 2nd and 3rd is Andretti Formula E under both formats. Positions 5-8 are different between the 2 formats as: Citroen Racing are 5th under the current format but are 6th under the alternative format, Nissan Formula E Team are 6th in real life which is 2 places higher that where they are under the alternative format, Envision Racing conversely are 2 places higher under the alternative format as they are 5th under that format but are 7th in real life, and Cupra Kiro are 8th in real life whilst being 7th under the alternative format. All teams have more points under the alternative format than they do in real life and the team with biggest difference is DS Penske who have 139 points under the alternative format and 50 in real life.
Below are the overall Teams' Championship standings:

Customer Teams' Championship

Cupra Kiro's win means that they are on track to keep themselves in title contention going into London, providing that the lead Andretti Formula E car doesn't finish ahead of the lead Kiro car in the next race.
Below are the Customer Teams' Championship standings:

Manufacturers' Cup

Stellantis lead the manufacturer standings under the alternative format with 317 points but are 3rd in real life with 215 as 1st in real life is Porsche with 427 points but they are 3rd under alternative format with 311. Jaguar are 2nd under both formats. There is no other difference in the standings between the 2 formats, although Jaguar and Porsche do have more points in real life compared to their totals under the alternative format. The biggest gainer in terms of points is Stellantis, whose 317 points under the alternative format is 102 points greater than their real life total of 215.
Below are the Manufacturers' Cup standings: