The Biggest Talking Points from the 2026 Tokyo E-Prix Weekend
- Linus O'Howell
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
In true Cars 2 fashion, we got floodlight racing around the streets of Tokyo as the Championship battle had yet another twist in the tale!
Dan Ticktum’s Moment
There’s no hiding away from the fact that 2026 has been a pretty torrid year for Dan Ticktum, with the experienced driver currently playing second fiddle to his Rookie teammate Pepe Marti! In fact, just two points-scoring finishes all season (not including Qualifying) heading into the weekend put Dan in a position where his future in Formula E looks rather quiet! However, after Qualifying well on Saturday, Ticktum was actually able to stay out of trouble for once, with a smart strategy from Cupra Kiro allowing the Brit to lead after the pit boost window! Dan would eventually lose that lead to Jake Dennis, with Dan more than happy to come home behind the Andretti for what would’ve been his first Podium of the season! However, a power cut for Dennis allowed Ticktum to make the move on the final lap, delivering Kiro just their second-ever win in Formula E! This was one of those drives that gives Dan Ticktum a chance of retaining his seat, and whilst Sunday ended up not going to plan, it’s still a very positive result for the now 2-time Formula E Race Winner!
An Emotional Week for Citroen
At the start of the week, it was sadly confirmed that Citroen Racing Team Principal Cyril Blais had passed away at just the age of 46! This was pretty devastating news for the entire Formula E paddock, with both FE and Citroen paying tribute to Blais across the weekend! Now, the Race must go on, but boy did Citroen do Cyril proud, with Nick Cassidy returning to the Podium as Jean-Eric Vergne bagged 8 points for finishing 6th! This was a rather emotional Podium for Nick, but the weekend would only get better as Cassidy returned to the rostrum a day later, this time in second place, whilst Vergne also finished 1 place higher in P5! This means that in a weekend that was dedicated to Cyril Blais, Citroen Racing came away from it with 2 Podiums and 51 points! He would be so proud!
A Second Win for Nyck de Vries
Nyck de Vries has had a rather rocky Season 12 on the basis that he’s been involved in a ton of incidents that have cost him big points! However, the pace has always been there, with that fully being shown in Monaco when de Vries returned to winning ways for the first time since 2022! Now, a P17 finish on Saturday was pretty poor, but nobody’s going to care about that after today’s result! The E-Prix didn’t exactly go to plan, originally, with Nyck failing to successfully activate his attack mode, whilst he was running completely on his own in P10 at one point, with massive gaps both in front and behind him! However, when the track started to dry up, it was quickly realised that Mahindra Racing had pulled off a smart move with de Vries’ tyre pressures, allowing Nyck to climb all the way up from 10th to 1st! Now, a little bit of luck was needed for Nyck de Vries to hold onto that victory, but in the end, a win is a win, and that’s now 2 in 2026 for the inaugural Formula E World Champion!
Pascal Wehrlein?
After a rocky run in Monaco and Sanya, Pascal Wehrlein was able to bounce back with 40 points in Shanghai (including a victory in Race 1) to retake the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with just 2 weekends left to go! However, Tokyo was a complete mess for Pascal, on both Saturday and Sunday! The first Race saw Wehrlein running decently up until the point where he made contact with ex-teammate Antonio Felix da Costa, an incident that forced him to retire! Then, after running around P7 for the first half of the E-Prix, it was clear to see that Porsche weren’t anticipating the rain to stop falling, as the wrong choice in tyre pressure saw Pascal drop all the way down to the back of the field, eventually finishing P13! This means that Pascal Wehrlein leaves Tokyo on the exact same points total (141) as before he got on the plane to Japan in the first place, but now he finds himself third in the Championship, 5 points off the leader! The positive for Wehrlein is he knows how to win a Championship-deciding weekend (he did it in 2024), but at the same time, the momentum is not on his side anymore!
A Near-Perfect Weekend for Jake Dennis
After the Shanghai double-header, Jake Dennis found himself 5th in the Drivers’ Championship, 32 points off Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein! I can tell you that following the Tokyo double-header, Jake now leads the Formula E World Championship by 2 points (over Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans)! That’s an insane turnaround, with a double Podium finish making it a near-perfect weekend for the Brit! However, it really could’ve been perfect! See, after taking Pole Position on Saturday, Jake Dennis would do everything right to convert that Pole into a Win, only for a power cut on the final lap to cost him a place to Dan Ticktum! It was still a positive day in comparison to his (now) Championship rivals, but that was definitely a Race that got away! Then, after a torrid Qualifying, Andretti rolled the dice by running a completely dry set of tyre pressures, a move that later saw Dennis gain up to 5 seconds a lap on certain cars! After being nowhere for a lot of the Race, Jake was all of a sudden the favourite to win the Race, only for a Red Flag to deny him once again! So, we repeat the sentence that states that this was still another positive day in comparison to his Championship rivals, but yet again, this was a Race that got away from him! The positives are there for everyone to see; all Jake Dennis needs to do is outscore Mitch Evans, Pascal Wehrlein, and Oliver Rowland and a second Championship will be all but his! However, if he ends up losing out on the Title by just a few points, we’ll know where the Season 9 Champion lost them!
Overall Race Results (Round 14)
Dan Ticktum (FL)
Jake Dennis (P)
Nick Cassidy
Mitch Evans
Edoardo Mortara
Jean-Eric Vergne
Oliver Rowland
Pepe Marti
Antonio Felix da Costa
Taylor Barnard
Lucas di Grassi
Joel Eriksson
Felipe Drugovich
Sebastien Buemi
Maximilian Gunther
Norman Nato
Nyck de Vries
Nico Muller
Zane Maloney
Pascal Wehrlein (DNF)
Overall Race Results (Round 15)
Nyck de Vries
Nick Cassidy
Jake Dennis (FL)
Oliver Rowland
Jean-Eric Vergne
Norman Nato
Nico Muller
Taylor Barnard
Maximilian Gunther
Zane Maloney
Lucas di Grassi
Dan Ticktum
Pascal Wehrlein
Antonio Felix da Costa
Sebastien Buemi
Felipe Drugovich
Mitch Evans (DNF)
Edoardo Mortara (DNF) (P)
Joel Eriksson (DNF)
Pepe Marti (DNF)
Drivers’ Standings
Jake Dennis: 146pts
Mitch Evans: 144pts
Pascal Wehrlein: 141pts
Oliver Rowland: 132pts
Edoardo Mortara: 116pts
Teams’ Standings
Jaguar TCS Racing: 257pts
Porsche Formula E Team: 243pts
Andretti Formula E: 211pts
Mahindra Racing: 210pts
Citroen Racing: 166pts
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