Oliver Rowland’s win helps take team to second place in the esports championship
Yokohama, Japan (June. 14, 2020) – Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland took his second series win in the final round of the ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge, securing him third in the drivers’ championship and helping Nissan e.dams to second in the teams’ championship.
Rowland’s dominant lights-to-flag win from pole position rounded off the eight-race competition in style, along with Sebastien Buemi’s fifth place from sixth on the starting grid. The success at the final race reflected the team’s strengthening pace and confidence through the second half of the virtual racing series.
With both drivers new to online sim racing competition, Rowland and Buemi used the opening rounds to settle in and adjust to their new sim racing set-ups at home. As the season progressed, their experience and pace developed leading to Rowland taking the team’s first win at race five in Berlin.
Rowland went on to take a podium in race six in New York, and P4 in race seven, again in New York. This late season surge from Rowland, backed up by two top ten finishes from Buemi, took Rowland to third in the drivers’ championship and the team to second – great results in what has been an extremely competitive and action-packed virtual racing series.
With the ABB Formula E Championship currently on pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Race At Home Challenge was conceived to keep fans entertained and saw all 24 drivers and 12 teams compete on virtual Formula E tracks. Racing for a good cause, raising funds for UNICEF’s global coronavirus appeal that helps keep children safe, healthy, and learning in the face of the pandemic.
The ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge is split into two grids and two races; the Driver Grid made up of Formula E racers, and the Challenge Grid of top-level sim racers.
Nissan e.dams fielded a handful of selected sim racers throughout the Challenge Grid races, with the professional sim racers on hand to coach the team’s race drivers on the intricacies of online sim racing.
The online racing series represents Formula E, the pinnacle of real-world zero emission racing, as the height of zero emission competition in the virtual world. This aligns with Nissan’s goal of zero emissions and zero fatalities, an important pillar of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, the brand’s vision for changing how cars are driven, powered, and connected into society.