Dan Ticktum claimed victory under the lights in Race 1 of the 2026 Tokyo E-Prix, finishing ahead of Jake Dennis and Nick Cassidy.
Jake Dennis started the race from pole position after defeating Edoardo Mortara by just 0.052s in the final Qualifying Duel, while António Félix da Costa and Nico Müller secured places on the second row. Müller’s heavy crash in the Semi Final brought out the red flag, while championship contenders Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland and Mitch Evans all failed to progress to the Duel stages.
The stewards handed Felipe Drugovich and Zane Maloney penalties, sending both drivers to the back of the grid. Drugovich received his penalty after his team carried out work on the car following his crash in Free Practice 2. Jean-Éric Vergne also received a grid penalty and started the Formula E Tokyo E-Prix from P10.
Dennis controlled the start of the first Race of the 2026 Formula E Tokyo E-Prix
Dennis led the pack into Turn 1 as Da Costa tried to overtake Mortara, meanwhile Müller started to fall down the timing sheets as he made slight contact with the wall while Da Costa tried to overtake him. Officials briefly waved the yellow flag to clear debris from the track. De Vries, Maloney, and Müller entered the pits, but none of them completed their mandatory Pit Boost stop. Meanwhile, Dennis maintained the lead ahead of Mortara and Barnard, who overtook Da Costa to move into third place.
Officials investigated Wehrlein and Norman Nato after the Nissan driver collided with the Porsche Formula E driver. They ultimately handed Nato a five-second penalty. Officials also gave Buemi a five-second penalty for causing a collision with De Vries. At the same time, several teams reported that they expected rain within the next 20 minutes.
Multiple small collisions lead to penalties
It was a busy period for Race control, as Maximilian Günther received a black and white flag for moving under braking. With 15 of the planned 36 laps driven, Dennis still held a lead ahead of Mortara, followed by Da Costa, who took back his place from Barnard. Meanwhile Buemi was the first of the grid to go through attack mode as he made his way up the grid.
Rain started to fall in Tokyo as Dennis held of Buemi who overtook Mortara for P2 as he made the most of his Attack Mode extra energy. With the majority of the grid not taking their Attack Mode ahead of their Pit Boost stops, Dennis was still leading the first Race of the 2026 Formula E Tokyo E-Prix with a lap of over 3 seconds. Meanwhile, there was contact between Wehrlein and Da Costa, with Da Costa ending in the barriers in Turn 8.
Pit Boost strategies reshuffke the grid
With the teams starting to go into the pits for the Pit Boost, the order started to reshuffle, with Ticktum making the undercut on Dennis, coming out in front of the pole sitter. Though Ticktum went through Attack Mode already when he came out of the pits, which could come to his disadvantage later on as Dennis still had the chance to overtake Ticktum. Meanwhile, championship leader Wehrlein needed to retire from the first Race at the 2026 Formula E Tokyo E-Prix.
While Cassidy used up all of his Attack Mode in P2, Dennis still had about 2 minutes left, using the extra energy to overtake the Kiwi, starting his charge to get back on the top step of the podium. And another penalty was handed out as Wehrlein got a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Da Costa, though the penalty won’t affect this race as Wehrlein already had to retire his car.
Ticktum claims victory with last lap overtake
With the last bit of his Attack Mode remaining, Dennis overtook Ticktum for the lead again, being back on top while Evans in P6 started his charge for a podium position with about a minute left of extra energy. Evans made it up to P5, resulting in him moving up in the Formula E Drivers’ Championship standings, becoming the new leader as Pascal Wehrlein won’t take home any points this race. With 3 laps left to drive around Tokyo Dennis lead with around half a second ahead of Ticktum, while Cassidy was in P3 with a gap of around 3 seconds.
Though only a few laps left Tokyo seemed to want some more drama as rain started to fall on the track, giving the remaining drivers an extra challenge. Meanwhile, Wehrlein seemed to want to finish the race as he went back out on track, being multiple laps behind the grid, though ending up not being classified at the end of the race.
Dan Ticktum wins the first race of the Formula E Tokyo E-Prix as he overtakes Dennis on the last bit of the final lap, leaving the Andretti driver in P2, followed by Cassidy in third. Meanwhile Mitch Evans went to the top of the Drivers’ Championship, as Dennis made good points, putting himself into P3 of the Championship standings.
Complete race results here.
