An Extreme Year

EXTREME E 14 ANEXTREME

YEAR

After a short break, Extreme E returned in February for its second season, kicking off in the desert of Saudi Arabia. In this special feature, we revisit the action from the opening weekend and look ahead to the rest of the race calendar. BY CRAIG EVANS

Drama in the desert

Reigning Champions Rosberg X Racing started the second season of the Extreme E Championship exactly where they left the first, by winning the opening round Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia. Their strong start to the season now means that of the six Extreme E races there have been, RXR have won four of them. However, it isn’t the same pair of drivers that won the championship driving for Nico Rosberg’s team last year. Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky made a move from one F1 World Champions team to another, when she moved from JBXE to RXR to partner remaining driver Johan Kristoffersson. RXR’s closest championship challengers, X44 also maintained an impressive record in qualifying as they took pole, making it six pole positions from six X-Prix’s for Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez. The pair finished the first qualifying race a close second but really showed why they’ve been so difficult to beat in qualifying with a dominant display in the second qualifying race. Much like its on-track cousin, Formula E, Extreme E also made changes to the qualifying format going into this season. Five cars are now allowed to compete in the qualifying heats, an increase of two from the inaugural season. In its first season in Extreme E, McLaren XE had a qualifying race of two halves with Tanner Foust putting in an amazing debut performance for the team. In a lovely late breaking move, Foust swept down the inside of the Andretti United car on the way into the switch zone in quail race one. As Emma Gilmour took the wheel a technical issue meant that her car was unable to leave the pit box and by the time the issue had been fixed the team were last. McLaren would fight their way back into the final race of the weekend with an outstanding performance from both drivers in the crazy race. The final race of the weekend saw an early red flag which brought the session to a close after massive crash for McLaren’s Tanner Foust. In a tussle for positions early during the first lap, Foust made contact with the back of reigning champions RXR, dislodging their rear bumper. McLaren were classified as fifth despite the amazing effort from the pair during the qualifying stages. The resumption of the final saw the drivers battle it out in a one lap shootout, and as the drivers climbed to the top of the massive hill at the end of the lap, it was RXR’s Kristoffersson who exited out in front and across the line for yet another victory. ACCIONA | Sainz XE had led the final from the start up to this point but there wasn’t anything that Laia Sanz could do to stop the charging Kristoffersson as he stormed down the hill and stole the victory from right under Sanz in the final few meters of the race. X44 rounded off the podium.

EXTREME E

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

1. ROSBERG X RACING 2. ACCIONA | SAINZ XE TEAM 3. X44 4. CHIP GANASSI RACING 5. MCLAREN XE 6. XITE ENERGY RACING 7. GENESY’S ANDRETTI

UNITED EXTREME E 8. ABT CUPRA XE 9. JBXE 10. VELOCE RACING 30 POINTS 18 POINTS 15 POINTS 12 POINTS 10 POINTS 8 POINTS 6 POINTS

4 POINTS 2 POINTS 1 POINT

15 EXTREME E

SWEDISH-DUO MIKAELA ÅHLIN-KOTTULINSKY AND JOHAN KRISTOFFERSSON SECURED THE FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON FOR RXR

The second round of the season, the Island X Prix was scheduled to take place 7-8 May on an Italian military base in the Capo Teulada region of SouthWest Sardinia. However, due to the current global events, the base is now required for training purposes and unavailable. In order to accommodate this, Extreme E will now host its very first double header in Sardinia with the first event taking place on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th, with the second only two days later on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July. After the double header in Sardinia, Extreme E will make its long-awaited South American debut, when the series heads to Antofagasta in Chile for the Copper X-Prix. The season finale will this year take place in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, when the series hosts the ‘Energy’ X-Prix in November.

EXTREME E

RACE CALENDAR

Round 2: Island X-Prix Sardinia, Italy – 6th-7th June Round 3 Sardinia, Italy – 9th-10th June Round 4 Antofagasta, Chile – 10th-11th September Round 5 Punta Del Este, Uruguay – 26th-27th November