Mahindra Racing's De Vries storms to victory in rollercoaster Tokyo E-Prix
5 Dariya News
Tokyo 27-Jul-2026
Mahindra Racing departs from Tokyo having notched 38 points across the weekend, with Nyck de Vries securing his second victory of the season and sixth of his Formula E career at the Tokyo E-Prix after a challenging wet-dry race, while team-mate Edoardo Mortara took a record-equalling fourth pole of the season, but eventually retired after an incident late on.
The threat of rain loomed throughout the weekend for Rounds 14 & 15 of the 2025/26 FIA Formula E World Championship, and the changeable conditions certainly made things difficult to predict in the second race on Sunday. Having topped both practice sessions, Edoardo Mortara lined up second for the first race of the weekend on Saturday, but ultimately finished fifth after running in podium contention for much of the race.
De Vries, meanwhile, was unable to recover from a first-lap puncture and crossed the line 17th. On Sunday, Mortara’s remarkable one-lap pace became evident once again as he swept the Duels stage, besting da Costa by six tenths in the Final to take a fourth pole of the year, equalling the record for the most Formula E poles in a single season and setting new personal and team records in the process.
De Vries also made it to the Duels and started fifth on the grid for the second race of the weekend. The race got underway behind the Safety Car, with the drivers getting a reconnaissance lap under their belts in wet conditions.
Off the line, Mortara held his advantage to take an early lead, while de Vries dropped back to seventh early on. Da Costa, who was running a close second, went for an early Attack Mode deployment on Lap 3, and swiftly relegated Mortara to second.
De Vries, meanwhile, fell further back into the pack struggling in tricky conditions on tyre pressures chosen for a drying track. On Lap 14, Mortara deployed his first Attack Mode, which got him to within a second of da Costa, but before he could attempt an overtake, a Full Course Yellow neutralised the race.
At the restart, Mortara was close, but couldn’t get past for the lead and started to slip back through the field as tyre pressures became a critical factor. Further back, de Vries used his first two minutes of Attack Mode deployment to progress up to sixth.
Then, on Lap 26, it came time for de Vries to activate his remaining six minutes of Attack Mode, which he used to surge through the front runners and into the lead. Meanwhile, Mortara had slipped back to 10th, activating his second Attack Mode.
In the closing laps, Mortara was caught in a multi-car incident that ended his race and brought out the red flag. That left de Vries to fend off the chasing pair of Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis in a one-lap dash to the chequered flag.
The Dutchman did just that, mastering the changeable conditions to secure the win in Tokyo, his second of the season. It marked the first time Mahindra Racing has taken multiple victories in a single season since 2017/18.
The 25 points for victory lifted de Vries to ninth in the Drivers’ Standings, with team-mate Mortara fifth. In the Teams’ Standings, Mahindra Racing leaves Tokyo with 210 points, just one behind third-placed Andretti ahead of the final two races of the campaign.
Rounds 16 & 17 of the 2025/26 FIA Formula E World Championship season will take place in London on 15/16 August. Celebrating his second victory for Mahindra, Nyck de Vries said: “We were a little bit lucky today.
We opted for a drying track and in hindsight that worked out in our favour. We got a poor start, but I think it was very important to save energy at the beginning of the race because once the track dried, you needed it.
“We had some more luck at the end with the red flag because Jake [Dennis] was coming on strong in Attack Mode. I’m very happy and proud of the team who executed a great race to get our second win of the season.”
After a weekend which showed a lot of promise, Edoardo Mortara commented: “It’s a disappointing result on a day when we showed quite a lot of performance. When you start from pole and everything is fully wet, there’s very little to gamble.
“I started with the wet set-up, and this wasn’t the right call. But fortunately, we split the strategy and it worked out very well for Nyck [de Vries], so I’m very happy for the team.”
Commenting on a special result for Mahindra, Team Principal & CEO Frederic Bertrand added: “First of all, it was a strong result for the team in what was a challenging weekend. Amazing pace from our two drivers over one lap, and in particular Edoardo [Mortara] securing P2 yesterday and pole position today, as well as Nyck getting P5 on the grid today. It shows we are the most competitive right now when it comes to Qualifying.
“This weekend was challenging from a strategic and energy management perspective. Edoardo did an excellent job yesterday to secure fifth position after a tough race with Sebastien Buemi. Today was a bit more of a gamble with the set-up, but Nyck managed an impressive drive to take his second win of the season, which has really had a big impact for us in the Teams’ Championship.”