Extreme E: Spectacle in the desert sand 🎥
SUCCESSFUL PREMIERE The first race of the Extreme E offered everything you could want from motorsport - apart from the sound. Nico Rosberg's mixed team emerged as the first winner in Saudi Arabia. The highlights of the two semifinals, the shootout with LeDuc's collision with Hürtgen and the final. All races led over two [...]
The highlights of the two semifinals, the shootout with LeDuc's collision with Hürtgen and the final. All races were over two laps with driver changes.
The Rosberg-X-Racing driver pairing of Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor set the pace from the start at the first Extreme E race weekend in Al Ula. The Swede and the Australian still had to get to grips with the desert theme to make motorsport history in the end.
In the run-up to the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia, there was great anticipation and expectation - and the first event lived up to nothing. The drivers, who took turns at the wheel of their desert buggies after each completed lap, delivered great head-to-head races through the sand and provided spectacular scenes.
Experienced winning pair
In the end, nothing and no one could stop Kristoffersson and Taylor from storming to the top of the podium. Neither a 60-second penalty in qualifying for exceeding the 30 km/h limit in the driver change zone, nor less favorable grid positions in the semifinals and finals contested by three teams each.
Kristofferson is a Swedish touring car champion and three-time rallycross champion, and Taylor was British women's rally champion and rally champion against all men in Australia.
Nico Rosberg is delighted with Molly Taylor and Johan Kristofferson after winning the Extreme E world premiere.
Poor visibility for the chasers
Second place went to Timmy Hansen, another rallycrosser from Sweden, and the British Catie Munnings from Team Andretti United, who is only 24 years old. Hansen had got off to the better start in the final but had to admit defeat after a reckless maneuver by Kristofferson in the fast left-hand turn leading through the first gate.
After the two qualifying runs, Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez were still in front. However, the nine-time world rally champion lost out in the final on the first kilometer, had the poorest visibility as a result and subsequently conceded defeat to his Spanish colleague.
The founder of this team X44 is Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton (driving with starting number 44), who thus suffered his first defeat against his former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
Spectacular accidents by Claudia Hürtgen
Claudia Hürtgen provided the most spectacular scene in Saturday morning's practice session. Mattias Ekström had just handed over the e-Cupra ABT XE1 to her after a fast lap.
The German was on her way to a top time when she rolled over several times in a fast passage on the eight-kilometer circuit, apparently due to a broken tie rod, and finally ended up on her side.
The spectators and all the participants in front of the TV monitors took their breath away. Claudi Hürtgen completed an unintentional crash test.
While the pilot exited uninjured, the accident gave mechanics a full night shift to rebuild the e-Cupra, which is based on Spark Racing Technology's Odyssey 21 unit chassis.
In the so-called shootout race for important points, Hürtgen was hit while leading by her American rival Kyle LeDuc in the Chip Ganassi Racing Hummer and again had to end the race prematurely.
The French veteran Stéphane Sarrazin also made a multiple somersault in practice. His car could not be prepared for the rest of the event. Behind his Veloce Racing team are F1 star designer Adrian Newey (Red Bull Racing) and two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne.
From the desert to the ocean
The next event on the Extreme E calendar is scheduled for May 29 and 30 in Senegal. The Ocean X Prix will take place at Lac Rose, which is familiar from the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally.
This will be followed by three more races between now and December in Greenland (Arctic X Prix), Brazil (Amazon X Prix) and Argentina (Glacier X Prix).
