Hello and welcome to what will be the first of 2 nighttime doubleheaders as it was recently announced that the Tokyo ePrix doubleheader will also be at night (local time) and after this ePrix, we have Formula E's Evo sessions which will see 2 teams of 5 internet personalities (Senor Frogs and Quickstars) battle each other using the qualifying format currently in use. The driver who wins all of their duels win the Individual Winners Trophy and the team with the most points (scored when a team's driver win a duel or tops the group stage) will win the Evo Sessions Trophy. This is being broadcasted exclusively on Formula E's Youtube channel and begins at 15:30 UTC (link to Formula E's Youtube page here).
This race of the doubleheader is a Pit Boost race, so once a driver's State of Charge (SoC) is between 60%-40%, they will have to head into the pits and have their car charged up for about 34 seconds (30 of those seconds devoted to charging) and receive 10% more energy. Any work on the car cannot be done whilst the car is charging and any time penalties accrued beforehand must be served before the charging equipment is plugged in (they can be served in the same trip to the pits). Also they will have only 1 attack mode for this race for 6 minutes.
The next Formula E race will be the 2026 CUPRA RAVAL ePrix on 21th March 2026 at 14:00 UTC and you can find out where to watch it here.

Qualifying

Like last time out in Miami, there were notable incidents in Free Practice: the first was in Free Practice 1 and was between Taylor Barnard and Oliver Rowland, as the pair would make contact on the exit of turn 13 after Oliver turned in, not knowing that Taylor was coming round the corner at full speed and luckily neither car was heavily damaged. Oliver would pick up a reprimand for this as the stewards would find him at fault and another reprimand this season for something he does, will see him pick up a 10 place grid penalty for his next race. Oliver would also crash in Free Practice 2 after clipping the inside barrier in turn 15 and breaking his front right suspension.
Now to Qualifying. Group A consisted of: Nick Cassidy, Jake Dennis, Nico Mueller, Edoardo Mortara, Sebastien Buemi, Nyck de Vries, Josep Maria 'Pepe' Marti, Jean-Eric Vergne, Norman Nato, and Lucas Di Grassi. It was a clean session so the only issue relating to this session was that Lucas would be serving a 3 place grid penalty in this race from a penalty he picked up from last time. The top 4 in group A and thus made it to the Duel stage were: Edoardo, Norman, Nico and Jean-Eric.
Group B went next and consisted of Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland, Mitch Evans, Joel Eriksson, Taylor Barnard, Max Guenther, Antonio Felix da Costa, Zane Maloney, Felipe Drugovich, and Dan Ticktum. A trend across the groups was the fast lap times being set quite late in the session, but the tyres could maintain temperature enough that some could improve in the dying seconds of a session. The 4 that made it into Duel stage from group B were: Pascal, Antonio, Max, Taylor.
The 1st Quarter-Final was between Jean-Eric and Norman, with the latter winning by 0.673 seconds and the 2nd was between Edoardo and Nico with the former winning by 0.377 seconds. Quarter-Final 3 was between Max and Antonio, which saw the former advance by 0.213 seconds and the final Quarter-Final was between Taylor and Pascal which saw the latter moving on to Semi-Final 2 by smallest advantage this session at 0.144 seconds. Semi-Final 1 was between Norman and Edoardo, which Edoardo won by 0.234 seconds and Semi-Final 2 was between Max and Pascal, with the former winning by 0.014 seconds. The Final saw Edoardo winning his and Mahindra's first pole since Season 10 for race 1 of the Berlin ePrix by 0.111 seconds. I only mention the gaps this time because the gaps were unusually large for this season.

Race

Overall Drivers' Championship

Pascal Wehrlein wins the race from Edoardo Mortara in 2nd and Mitch Evans in 3rd. We had a delay to the start of the race as Nyck de Vries's Mahindra wouldn't engage drive, so had to be wheeled off the grid. Tom Brooks (lead commentator for Formula E) erroneously believed that this was first time this had happened since the final race of season 7 when Mitch Evans failed to get going and was then hit by an unsighted Edoardo Mortara, except A: this kind of issue had hit Robin Frijns last season in Sao Paulo; and B: Mitch's issue was different as he got off the dummy grid unlike Nyck who didn't. The other Mahindra fares only slightly better, as Edoardo is stuck in rear-wheel drive (Formula E allows teams to use 4-wheel drive for race starts) and immediately loses the lead. There was 1 incident in the race, as on lap 1 going through turns 4 and 5, Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti would put Zane Maloney into the wall and out of the race as he moved to the right hand side of Nick Cassidy in an effort to have space to race him, not knowing that Zane had a bit of an overlap (Pepe's rear wheels were in line with Zane's front wheels). The stewards would declare it a racing incident because they saw it as standard lap 1 stuff and as the driver behind, Zane should have seen this coming, although where is he supposed to go? Backwards to get rear-ended by someone? The race returns to green after on lap 4, after a Full Course Yellow upgraded to a Safety Car that was called on lap 2, with Max Guenther leading. Norman Nato takes the lead on lap 5 and leads for the next 10 laps before handing it to Pascal as his SoC enters the window. Lap 15 is also the first lap in which someone takes attack mode and Max is that pioneer, dropping to 6th, while Oliver Rowland and Joel Eriksson are the first to go for Pit Boost. Joel makes 2 mistakes with Pit Boost as he stops too late in his pit and has to back up and took Pit Boost without having a SoC under 60% (this is probably not 100% his fault), copping a drive-through penalty to rub salt into the wound and effectively end his race.
Attack Mode was not as potent as some people thought this race due to: A: the lack of multi-line traction zones out of corners, meaning you have less chances to flex the superior grip you have with 4-wheel drive,; and B: less energy saving is needed as more energy will be available thanks to the Pit Boost putting 10% back into the cars, so the normal pace will be faster and the boost from Attack Mode won't be as great. This is seen when taking Attack Mode towards the end of a race and the pace has picked up as everyone has saved enough energy to run flat out until the end (good job no one will make that mistake this weekend).
Almost half of the grid enter the pits for Pit Boost at the end of lap 16, with Pascal, Max, Edoardo, Norman, Nico Mueller, Mitch, Nick Cassidy, Pepe Marti, Lucas Di Grassi, and Felipe Drugovich all staying out. The next Pit Boost taker, Pascal, comes at the end of lap 18, handing the lead to Max who, along with Edoardo, Norman, Nico, and Lucas, pit on lap 19, allowing Mitch to take over until lap 20 where everyone else finally pits, giving the lead to Pascal, who wasn't initially Pit Boost leader, as that was Max but he is passed by Pascal on lap 20 thanks to Attack Mode. It is thanks to this Attack Mode, that Pascal extends his lead to about 7 seconds over next couple of laps and what also helps him is Jake Dennis being 2nd with 2 minutes less of Attack Mode as Jake had been suffering from an efficiency deficit compared to those around him (he had complained about being similar on energy to those around him when it was first revealed despite 'high' amounts of saving) and one-line nature of the circuit means that Jake can hold the faster drivers up.
The winning strategy seemed to be pitting as late as possible as the highest finisher who pitted on lap 16 was Antonio Felix da Costa in 5th, but he never led a group of cars at any point, so could save more energy earlier in the race and not need to do so later on, but he still lost out to Edoardo, Mitch, and Nico who were behind him after the pit stops.

1. Pascal Wehrlein (=0)
2. Nico Mueller (+1)
3. Nick Cassidy (+2)
4. Jake Dennis (-2)
5. Edoardo Mortara (+1)
6. Mitch Evans (+1)

Only 3 drivers has less points under the alternative format compared to real life and they are Pascal Wehrlein, Nick Cassidy and Edoardo Mortara who have 62 and 46 points respectively (Nick and Edoardo are tied along with Jake Dennis) under the alternative format whereas in real life they has 64, 48, and 47 respectively. No driver match their points totals across both formats and the driver who has the most points compared to real life is Taylor Barnard, who has 13 more points under the alternative format (26) compared to real life (13). There are differences between the standings and the drivers who gains the most position's under the alternative format are Nico Mueller, Jake, and Taylor who all gains 2 places to be 2nd, 4th and 9th respectively under alternative format compared to 4th, 6th and 11th in real life, while the drivers who loses the most positions are Edoardo and Joel Eriksson who both drop 2 places to be 5th and 1th respectively under the alternative format, but are 3rd and 9th respectively in real life.
Below are the overall Drivers' Championship standings:

Customer Trophy for Drivers

The class is won by Sebastien Buemi with 2nd in class going to Jake Dennis, who rebounds from his lacklustre performance in Miami, and 3rd to Dan Ticktum who scores his first points in the season. Jake leads after the opening set of corners and until the end of lap 16, where he surrenders the lead to Pepe Marti as he takes his Pit Boost along with Sebastien. Pepe pits for his Pit Boost on lap 20, handing back the lead to Jake who leads until lap 29, where Sebastien sweeps around him whilst in Attack Mode for the last change for the class lead for the rest of the race. Joel Eriksson's faux pas with Pit Boost costs him 2nd in the championship as he swaps places with his teammate, but at least he finished the race which is more than can be said for some of Dan's 6th place finishes
Below are the Customer Trophy for Drivers standings:

Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy

The winner of the class is Nico Mueller with 2nd going to Pepe Marti and 3rd to Felipe Drugovich (finally he finishes a class not in 4th or 5th!). Nico leads until he takes his pit boost on lap 19, briefly handing the lead to Pepe who pits a lap later and returns it back. From here on out, Nico remains unchallenged. There is a change of championship position as Zane Maloney's retirement and Pepe's 2nd place in class mean the 2 swap places in the standings, although Pepe did have a hand in Zane's retirement.
Below are the Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy standings:

Overall Teams' Championship

With the win, Porsche Formula E Team lead the standings under both formats with Jaguar TCS Racing and Citroen Racing Formula E Team 2nd and 3rd respectively under the alternative format, while in real life Mahindra Racing are 2nd and Jaguar are 4th (where Mahindra are under the alternative format). Porsche are the only team not to score more points under the alternative format, as they are 3 points off their real life points score (109) under the alternative format (106). There is 1 change between the 2 formats in terms of the standings is the aforementioned Jaguar-Mahindra swap. The biggest gainer in terms of points is DS Penske who have 22 more points under the alternative format (43) compared to real life (21). Also, I would like to mention Jaguar's sudden rise up the standings as they have gone from 7th to 2nd which I believe is the biggest (if not then one of) positive change in standings position ever under the alternative format.
Below are the overall Teams' Championship standings:

Customer Teams' Championship

With their 2nd class win this season, Envision Racing lead the Customer Team's Championship with 72 points over Andretti Formula E, who have 70 points and are now the only team all the points to come from the finishes of 1 driver - Jake Dennis. This Championship could be Envision's, provided Jake doesn't start winning again and Cupra Kiro needs both Envision and Andretti's drivers to retire to stand any chance of coming back into this fight, which could happen - look at the points for the end of last season's championship.
Below are the Customer Teams' Championship standings:

Manufacturers' Cup

Porsche continues to lead the standings in Manufacturers' Cup under both formats with points total of 113 (alternative) and 125 (real life). Stellantis stay 2nd under the alternative format with 91 points but have now dropped back to 3rd in real life with 77. 3rd under the alternative format is Jaguar who have 71 points under the alternative format and are 2nd in real life with 81 points, so the Stellantis-Jaguar swap is the only difference in terms of standings between the 2 formats. Porsche and Jaguar are the only manufacturers to have less points under the alternative format, with Porsche having the biggest discrepancy at 12 points. The biggest gainer in terms of points is still Lola-Yamaha, whose 39 points under the alternative format is 25 points greater than their real life total of 14.
Below are the Manufacturers' Cup standings: