Oliver Rowland has a three-place grid penalty for the first part of Formula E’s upcoming Berlin double-header for taking out Andre Lotterer in Monaco.
Rowland described the crash at Sainte Devote in the final third of the race as “my incident that caused another incident”.
The Mahindra driver was racing Lotterer’s Porsche for fifth position into the first corner but carried too much speed and took both into the barriers.
No room for error in Monaco 😩
We lose @oliverrowland1 and @Andre_Lotterer from the race after this incident…
🇲🇨 2022 #MonacoEPrix pic.twitter.com/EDjJaVt5yw
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) April 30, 2022
Both drivers sustained minor hand injuries – Rowland sporting a bandaged left wrist and Lotterer carrying a bruised hand as a result of the sudden impact with the wall.
Rowland said he “was down the inside” but then lost control.
“It was kind of done but when you’re inside like that you follow the guy on the outside,” he explained.
“He carried quite good speed there and I just lost the rear on the kerb.
“My crash made him crash and I’ve got three places just to add to it.”
Lotterer’s take on the incident was that “it was pretty clear that he sent it a bit in too much and lost control of the car.
“I left him space, but he hit his rear on my front and it sent me immediately into the wall and that was the end of the race.”
Despite crashing when looking likely to pull off his best result of a frustrating season at Mahindra so far, Rowland was relatively upbeat.
He cited a succession of simulator sessions to understand further some of the braking episodes that blighted his weekend in Rome earlier this month.
Rowland’s ninth on the Monaco grid was his highest starting spot for Mahindra, though he would’ve exceeded that at both Diriyah races had he not received grid penalties.
“I’m quite positive today to be honest as we had good speed,” he said.
“I made a small mistake and I locked up big time in turn one [in qualifying], but the rest of the lap was solid, and the race was good.
“The pace was reasonable considering we literally focused not on the race at all between Rome and here.
“It was all really trying to understand braking and qualifying better. And I think we’ve made a good step in the right direction.
“We have a lot of work to do now to understand all the small details.”
