Formula E London E-Prix: Wehrlein takes second title despite no points in season finale

Pascal Wehrlein has become the 2025-26 Formula E world champion despite finishing outside of the points in the London E-Prix as Taylor Barnard won the frantic season finale.

The Porsche driver has now joined Jean-Eric Vergne as the all-electric championship’s only two-time series champions after Wehrlein took his first in the 2023-24 London finale.

He took this year’s title despite entering the weekend third in the championship, five points off erstwhile leader Jake Dennis and three behind Mitch Evans but luck initially went his way.

It started on Saturday, when Porsche team orders enabled Wehrlein to win race one from pole and take the championship lead from Dennis by five points, with Evans a significant 21 behind.

The picture became even better when he enjoyed another strong qualifying on Sunday, taking third behind pole sitter Nyck de Vries and his Mahindra team-mate Edoardo Mortara.

Wehrlein’s stablemate Nico Muller, meanwhile, joined him on the second row ahead of fifth-placed Evans with Dennis down in 16th, requiring a near-miracle for him to lose the title.

The 31-year-old just needed to keep it clean and that’s what happened at race start as drivers maintained position before the various Attack Mode strategies came into play.

That made the early picture unclear as the likes of Barnard, who started sixth, and Antonio Felix Da Costa, from ninth, came into the fray with positions constantly changing.

Taylor Barnard took his first Formula E win

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

But amid the chaos, all that mattered was come lap 16 of 35, it looked as though Wehrlein had the title wrapped up as he was fifth behind leader Mortara, de Vries, Barnard and Da Costa.

An aggressive Da Costa was doing his best to help Jaguar team-mate Evans, but the Kiwi was struggling to overtake Muller for seventh with Dennis not a threat outside of the points.

Then it all changed on lap 26, however, when the near-miracle needed for either Dennis or Evans to become champion actually started to look like a genuine possibility.

That’s because sixth-placed Evans took his Attack Mode and quickly made a double overtake on Da Costa and Wehrlein at Turn 16 thanks to his team-mate holding up the Porsche.

Evans then suddenly streaked clear with his sights on the top three, while Da Costa continued to have his elbows out doing whatever it took for a now frustrated Wehrlein to not be champion.

So much was obvious on lap 27 when he deliberately ran Wehrlein wide at Turn 19, which dramatically dropped the German down to 11th, as the train behind forced through including Dennis.

This suddenly made Dennis the provisional champion as nerves dramatically escalated, only for one more twist on lap 32 as Wehrlein resorted to desperate moves to save his second crown.

He lunged down the inside of Dennis for ninth at Turn 16, but tagged the back of Joel Eriksson, causing the Envision to spin and hold up both the Porsche and Andretti, which dropped out the top 10.

Nyck De Vries and Edoardo Mortara rounded out the podium for Mahindra

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

In a split second, Dennis was out of the title picture with eyes now turning to fourth-placed Evans, who needed to win but was eight seconds behind the top three of De Vries, Mortara and Barnard.

So, with the lap count ticking down, it was too much of a task for Evans, who couldn’t progress any further. Barnard did, however, thanks to taking Attack Mode late on.

It resulted in the DS Penske driver storming into the lead to eventually take his maiden series victory, just less than a second ahead of De Vries with Mortara completing the podium.

Evans finishing fourth at least secured the teams’ crown for Jaguar in its battle with Porsche, while Envision’s Sebastien Buemi completed the top five in his last Formula E race.

Nick Cassidy finished sixth, while Vergne, Pepe Marti, Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato respectively rounded out the points positions, with Wehrlein 14th - one above da Costa and  five in front of Dennis.

Although Wehrlein still took the crown, he was still frustrated post-race claiming “it’s one of the most unsporty and unfair things I have seen - how Antonio drove”.

“That's how it is if you have enemies in the paddock,” he added. “Still, we made it, and there is another message: I don't forget things.

“So, yeah. Let's rock, let's have a good off-season, and next year I won't forget what happened here.”

Formula E London E-Prix: Race 2 Results 

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Points	Retirement
1	T. Barnard DS Penske	77		35	42'19.363			25
2	N. de Vries Mahindra Racing	21		35	+0.614 42'19.977	0.614		18
3	E. Mortara Mahindra Racing	48		35	+6.087 42'25.450	5.473		15
4	M. Evans Jaguar Racing	9		35	+7.722 42'27.085	1.635		12
5	S. Buemi Envision Racing	16		35	+16.754 42'36.117	9.032		10
6	N. Cassidy Citroën Racing	37		35	+17.205 42'36.568	0.451		8
7	J. Vergne Citroën Racing	25		35	+17.864 42'37.227	0.659		6
8	P. Martí Cupra Kiro	3		35	+18.312 42'37.675	0.448		4
9	O. Rowland Nissan e.Dams	1		35	+19.363 42'38.726	1.051		2
10	N. Nato Nissan e.Dams	23		35	+24.990 42'44.353	5.627		1
11	M. Gunther DS Penske	7		35	+31.219 42'50.582	6.229
12	N. Müller Porsche Team	51		35	+35.367 42'54.730	4.148
13	F. Drugovich Andretti Formula E	28		35	+38.658 42'58.021	3.291
14	P. Wehrlein Porsche Team	94		35	+48.737 43'08.100	10.079
15	A. Felix da Costa Jaguar Racing	13		35	+49.110 43'08.473	0.373
16	D. Ticktum Cupra Kiro	33		35	+59.710 43'19.073	10.600
17	Z. Maloney LOLA YAMAHA ABT FORMULA E TEAM	22		35	+1'03.794 43'23.157	4.084
18	J. Dennis Andretti Formula E	27		34	+1 Lap 42'46.047	1 Lap
dnf	J. Eriksson Envision Racing	14		31	+4 Laps 38'28.701	3 Laps			Retirement
dnf	L. di Grassi LOLA YAMAHA ABT FORMULA E TEAM	11		11	+24 Laps 14'26.791	20 Laps			Retirement
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