Tech catastrophe robs Rowland of double win
The following day, Rowland looked all set to claim a Misano double – only for a bizarre technical fault to mean it was his turn to be left bitterly disappointed.
The 31-year-old had hit the front with five laps to go by upping his pace and passing Pascal Wehrlein for the lead – but it turns out his car had given him a false impression of how much energy it had to finish the race. The Nissan entry started the last lap with a comfy 1.4-second lead over Wehrlein and it seemed the race for victory was done. But then suddenly there was Rowland, crawling along out of energy. That gifted works Porsche ace Wehrlein and his team a precious victory to make up for the bitterness of the da Costa disqualification the day before.
Rowland – who would have scored a fifth consecutive podium had he made it to the flag – explained the glitch that befell his car at the start. As he had crossed the line to begin the race the car counted it as a completed lap – meaning he was running to a pace that would leave him coming up one short.
“It sounds like something was missed on the grid,” he said, “and when I crossed the line at the start it counted down a lap, which it shouldn’t [have] so I had one less lap the whole race. We raced well and we were super-efficient when we were behind as well. I know now I had one lap less but I would have had no problem making it to the end just sitting third, fourth or fifth when that was the target. But we have targets on the dash and a plan to take the lead when we get to a certain point of the race and that’s what I did – and it did feel a bit too good to be true at the time. It’s just one of those things, we win and we lose as a team.”