Ticktum Wins Tokyo E-Prix Round 14 as Evans Reclaims Championship Lead From Wehrlein

Dan Ticktum stole the first-ever Tokyo night race on the final lap, passing Jake Dennis through the penultimate corner as the Andretti driver’s energy ran critical, making it nine different winners across the last nine rounds, with the 0.380-second gap the closest winning margin of the 2025/26 season. Nick Cassidy completed the podium for Citroën Racing on an emotional weekend following the death of Team Principal Cyril Blais, with a minute’s silence held before the race. Mitch Evans drove from a difficult P16 qualifying to P4, retaking the Drivers’ Championship lead after Pascal Wehrlein collided with António Félix da Costa and failed to finish, with the stewards later penalising Wehrlein for the contact. Three rounds remain before the London finale.

Key Points: 2026 Tokyo E-Prix Round 14

• Ticktum wins from P6 after passing Dennis on the final lap, with the 0.380-second margin the closest of the season
• Dennis finishes second after running critically low on energy, with Cassidy third for Citroën Racing
• Cassidy’s podium comes days after the death of Team Principal Cyril Blais, who was honoured before the race
• Evans recovers from P16 to P4 and retakes the Drivers’ Championship lead by three points
• Wehrlein retires after contact with da Costa and receives a 10-second penalty
• Jaguar lead Porsche by 20 points in the Teams’ Championship with three rounds remaining

Race Recap: Under the Lights for the First Time

Tokyo’s floodlights lit the 2.58-kilometre street circuit for the first time in the championship’s history, run as the final double-header before the London finale under the mandatory Pit Boost format with a single Attack Mode. Jake Dennis took pole for Andretti Formula E. Nick Cassidy qualified seventh for Citroën Racing, while teammate Jean-Éric Vergne, originally seventh too, dropped to tenth after a post-qualifying penalty. Dan Ticktum started sixth for CUPRA Kiro.

Before the lights went out, the paddock observed a minute’s silence in memory of Cyril Blais, Citroën Racing Formula E Team’s Team Principal, who had passed away in the days before the race. It was an emotional moment shared across the entire Formula E community.

Ticktum executed an aggressive strategy from the start, activating both Pit Boost and Attack Mode early to emerge as the net race leader. Dennis responded on Lap 29, deploying a late 50kW all-wheel-drive boost to move past both Cassidy and Ticktum and take control of the race. Rain fell intermittently through the race, and Dennis later said the wet conditions cost him performance after leading most of the race in clean air, leaving him with nothing in reserve by the closing laps.

Dennis controlled the closing phase before his energy ran critical, forcing him to lift early on the run down to the final chicane on the last lap. Ticktum saw his chance through the penultimate corner and made the move stick, leading his fellow Briton home by 0.380 seconds, the closest winning margin of the season. It is CUPRA Kiro’s second Formula E victory and Ticktum’s second win in the championship, and makes it nine different winners in the last nine rounds. Ticktum also took the fastest lap of the race, a 1:13.251 on Lap 22.

Dennis was direct about the moment he let Ticktum through rather than fight it. The auto-cut had kicked in with no energy left, and swerving left to defend risked a collision he was not prepared to cause.

Cassidy’s Emotional Podium

Cassidy made an excellent start from seventh, immediately moving into the top six, and adopted an energy-saving strategy through the opening phase to maximise what he had available once the Pit Boost window opened. Combined with a well-timed Attack Mode activation, it delivered several decisive overtakes and third place at the flag, Citroën Racing’s second podium in as many rounds after Shanghai. Vergne, starting tenth after his grid penalty, ran his own energy-building strategy through the race and finished sixth, +6.619 seconds off the win.

Citroën Racing Managing Director Beth Paretta credited the whole team for coming together under a very difficult week to earn the result with Cassidy.

Evans Retakes the Lead as Wehrlein and Da Costa Collide

Mitch Evans arrived at Tokyo off a difficult qualifying, lining up sixteenth. He climbed steadily through the pack, executed a well-timed Pit Boost and managed his energy with precision, then deployed a late six-minute Attack Mode that gave him a consistent energy advantage over the cars ahead. On the final lap he overtook Taylor Barnard’s DS Penske to secure fourth place, a result that put him back at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

Da Costa’s race went the other way. Starting third, he ran firmly in the lead group without dropping below fourth position through the opening half. Contact with Wehrlein just past the midway point put him into the wall and out of the points. He recovered to finish ninth. The stewards handed Wehrlein a ten-second time penalty over the incident, and the Porsche driver did not finish, his championship lead gone as a result.

Da Costa said afterward he’d felt strong enough to fight for the win before the contact ended that chance. Jaguar Team Principal Ian James summed up both sides of the team’s afternoon.

Rest of the Grid

Oliver Rowland gained eight places for Nissan Formula E Team, qualifying fifteenth in hot and humid conditions before saving energy well in the opening stages. The team delayed his Pit Boost stop, and he re-emerged inside the top ten to immediately take his six-minute Attack Mode, making several clinical overtakes to finish seventh. Teammate Norman Nato, who qualified eleventh, showed solid early pace and ran inside the points before minor contact with another driver earned him a five-second penalty, served during his Pit Boost stop at the end of Lap 18. He finished sixteenth.

DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard qualified fifth and rose rapidly to third in the opening phase, moving up to fourth after his Pit Boost stop and Attack Mode activation. A steering wheel electronics problem then cost him several places on the final lap, and he crossed the line tenth. Teammate Maximilian Günther, who qualified ninth, took his Pit Boost earlier and delayed his Attack Mode, but a blank steering wheel display in the closing stages left him managing energy without the data he needed. He finished fifteenth.

Lucas di Grassi worked his way from seventeenth to eleventh for Lola Yamaha ABT, taking Pit Boost late in the window and activating Attack Mode on Lap 31, ultimately finishing just outside the points. Teammate Zane Maloney served a ten-second stop-and-go penalty on the opening lap, a consequence of the gearbox change required after his suspension failure in Shanghai, and finished nineteenth.

Race Classification: 2026 Tokyo E-Prix Round 14

Run over 36 laps and 92.7 kilometres. Pole position: Jake Dennis, Andretti Formula E. Fastest lap: Dan Ticktum, CUPRA Kiro, 1:13.251 on Lap 22.

Standings After Round 14

Coffee Corner Take

Ticktum has spent this whole season saying his pace has gone unrewarded. He’s out of contract, and he said so himself, unprompted, on the biggest night of his year. A driver doesn’t put “I don’t know what more I can do” into a post-race interview unless he means it. Tonight the result finally matched the pace.

Dennis let him through rather than risk a major accident at 116kph. Fair enough, too. A crash there helps nobody, and he’s still got a championship to fight for. He said it himself: fourteen points back now, and it’s on. Andretti leave Tokyo with more to build on than the result line suggests.

Cassidy’s podium carried more weight than third place normally would. Citroën had lost its Team Principal only days earlier, yet still put a car on the podium in Tokyo. The result did not erase what the team was dealing with, but it said plenty about how they handled it.

Wehrlein arrived in Tokyo with a 19-point lead. He leaves Round 14 three points behind Evans after contact with da Costa ended his race. Evans did not need to fight him on track. Fourth place from P16 was enough to take the championship lead back. Da Costa recovered to ninth, but Jaguar had lost a car that was running third before the collision.

Three rounds left. Evans and Wehrlein separated by three points with Jaguar now twenty clear of Porsche in the Teams’ fight. Round 15 is tomorrow, under the same lights, and after what Round 14 just delivered, nobody arrives at it thinking they know how it goes.