X44 Vida Carbon Racing top an action-packed Qualifying

Finishing first in Heat 1 were defending champions X44 Vida Carbon Racing, as Cristina Gutiérrez and Fraser McConnell led the race from start to finish. Winners of Heat 2 were Season 1 champions Rosberg X Racing (RXR), who finished second overall with a slower time through the Continental Traction Challenge.

A crash for ABT CUPRA XE’s Klara Andersson in the opening stages of Heat 2 resulted in a red flag, while a second DNF in the Heat came from a mechanical issue for championship leaders Veloce Racing.

Also in the line-up for the Grand Final are No.99 GMC HUMMER EV Chip Ganassi Racing and Carl Cox Motorsport with second place in their respective Heats. Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E complete the Grand Final grid.

The remaining five teams will fight it out in the Redemption Race to determine sixth to tenth place in the Round 3 standings.

Cristina Gutiérrez, X44 Vida Carbon Racing, said: “It’s great to finish first as we can go to the Grand Final and we can fight for everything!

“The biggest challenge is the conditions because all the time it’s changing and it’s totally different – so the most important thing is to adapt as much as possible our driving style in the moment that we are racing so it’s a double challenge. We need to be clever and not make mistakes because one mistake makes a lot of difference.

QUALIFYING 2 HEAT 1

Recognising the importance of the first corner ahead of a narrow section of the course, the teams tussled for position on the short opening stretch. Diving into the right-hander, X44 Vida Carbon Racing’s Cristina Gutiérrez muscled her way to the front of the pack from the innermost line.

Launching from the other side of the start line was Amanda Sorenson for No.99 GMC HUMMER EV Chip Ganassi Racing. The American took the wide line into the corner and, avoiding contact with the teams battling in the middle, managed to secure second place heading into her two-lap stint.

ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team’s Laia Sanz slotted into third, with British talent Catie Munnings taking fourth for Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E after a pass on JBXE’s Hedda Hosås as they exited the opening corner.

As Sanz closed in on Sorensen, Munnings kept the pair within reach and soon launched an aggressive overtake on the distracted Sanz. The Brit completed the manoeuvre just in time as the ODYSSEY 21s entered the steep descent down to the Switch Zone.

The intense racing saw plenty of ODYSSEY 21s riding two heels at the end of the third lap, as all five teams pushed for that all-important top three spot in the Heat needed to reach the Grand Final.

A smooth drive from X44 Vida Carbon Racing’s Fraser McConnell saw the Jamaican cross the line first as the team progresses into the Grand Final. Joining them are No.99 GMC HUMMER EV Chip Ganassi Racing, entering their third Grand Final from three as RJ Anderson brought the team home in second place.

The quickest lap of the Heat came from Hansen as the Swede finished the Heat in third for Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E. This proved crucial, as the team secured a quicker Continental Traction Challenge time than the third-placed team in Heat 2 to head into the Grand Final for the first time this season.

Finishing in fourth and fifth were Ekström and Andreas Bakkerud, meaning both ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team and JBXE will battle it out in the Redemption Race.

QUALIFYING 2 HEAT 2

In the fight for the remaining spots in the Grand Final, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky got a good start for RXR to put the team ahead of the pack. Behind her, Carl Cox Motorsport’s Timo Scheider and ABT CUPRA XE’s Klara Andersson went wheel-to-wheel in pursuit of second place.

As the track narrowed the ODYSSEY 21s only got closer, and the ABT CUPRA XE car entered a barrel roll as it ran out of room. Andersson came away unscathed as the session was red flagged.

Klara Andersson, ABT CUPRA XE, said: “Physically I’m ok, but I'm upset. The mechanics have been working all weekend repairing the car from NEOM, and now we are in trouble again and nothing we can do.

“I was on my way to pass and there was no room. I'm very frustrated as we followed the plan but if there's no room there's nowhere for me to go.”

Running in fourth, NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team’s Tanner Foust avoided the incident, while behind him a mechanical issue for Veloce Racing’s Molly Taylor saw her veer off-course. While the Australian recovered, the damage to the car brought the championship leaders to a stop out on course, meaning they enter the Redemption Race alongside their rivals, the ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team.

Heat 2 resumed from the start line, with the three remaining teams setting off at intervals matching those when the session was flagged. NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team’s Foust used his ENOWA Hyperdrive from the outset to close the gap on Scheider in the Carl Cox Motorsport ODYSSEY 21.

The American set up team-mate Emma Gilmour as best as he could, as the other drivers took over for the final two laps of the Heat. However, in their push to make up time, the team received a 5-second penalty for being too far out of their bay in the Switch Zone.

Despite a valiant drive from Gilmour, which saw her pass Christine GZ on the uphill Traction Challenge sector, the New Zealander was unable to build enough of a lead to retain second after the penalty was applied. The NEOM McLaren Extreme E will enter the Redemption Race as their combined time in the Continental Traction Challenge is slower than that of Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E.

An untroubled run for RXR saw Johan Kristoffersson finish Heat 2 in first, taking the team through to the Grand Final alongside Carl Cox Motorsport.

The Grand Final and Redemption Race can be viewed live on STV and ITV in the UK from 1300-1500 BST. Outside of the UK, please visit here for broadcaster details.

RESULTS

Q2 Heat 1:
1. X44 Vida Carbon Racing 09:50.935
2. No.99 GMC HUMMER EV Chip Ganassi Racing +6.203
3. Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E +8.191
4. ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team +10.744
5. JBXE +31.551

Q2 Heat 2:
1. Rosberg X Racing 42:43.301
2. Carl Cox Motorsport +20.971
3. NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team +24.215 (PENALISED)
4. Veloce Racing DNF
5. ABT CUPRA XE DNF

Overall Qualifying Standings:
1. X44 Vida Carbon Racing: 10 points
2. Rosberg X Racing: 10 points
3. No.99 GMC HUMMER EV Chip Ganassi Racing: 8 points
4. Carl Cox Motorsport: 8 points
5. Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E: 6 points
6. NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team: 6 points
7. ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team: 4 points
8. Veloce Racing: 4 points
9. JBXE: 2 points
10. ABT CUPRA XE: 2 points

Extreme E:

Simra Gulzar, Communications Supervisor
E: media@extreme-e.com / T:+44 7552 858229

Josh Bell, MPA Creative:     
E: jb@mpacreative.com  / T: +44 7557 102540

Diego Bustos, BE Mass Media (Latin America -including Brazil-, US Hispanics, Spain, Portugal)
E: diego.bustos@bemassmedia.com / +569-8829-9138 or +1-660-847-4645

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Extreme E:

Now heading into its third season, Extreme E is a radical off-road racing series, founded by the same team behind Formula E, which showcases electric SUVs and futuristic technologies in some of the world’s most remote and challenging environments.

This five-event global voyage utilises its sporting platform for the purpose of promoting electrification, environment and equality. The series’ goal is to highlight the impact of climate change in some of the world’s most endangered environments, promote the adoption of electric vehicles to pave the way for a lower carbon future, and provide a world-first gender-equal motorsport platform.

The first sport to ever be built out of a social purpose, Extreme E aims to minimise environmental impact while maximising awareness, racing in places that have already been damaged or affected by climate change or human interference and taking fans deep into the heart of the most pressing issues facing our planet’s future.

Not only that, but Extreme E is also helping the car industry to develop future-facing technology using racing as a platform for road innovation, which accelerates change ten-fold.

Season 3 Calendar: 

Saudi Arabia
11-12 March 2023
Scotland
13-14 May 2023
Sardinia, Italy
08-09 July 2023
Amazon/USA
16-17 September 2023
Chile
02-03 December 2023

About Continental Tires: Founding Partner and Official Tire Partner 
Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent, and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. 
 
The tyres business area has 24 production and development locations worldwide. Continental is one of the leading tyre manufacturers with more than 56,000 employees and offers a broad product range for passenger cars, commercial and special-purpose vehicles as well as two-wheelers. Through continuous investment in research and development, Continental makes a major contribution to safe, cost effective and ecologically efficient mobility. The portfolio of the tyres business area includes services for the tyre trade and fleet applications, as well as digital management systems for tyres. 
 
Continental developed a new high-performance tyre for Extreme E Season 2, redesigned to include the use of more sustainable materials. Each of the 30 tyres that Continental has supplied to all ten Extreme E teams now contains recycled polyester made from approximately 60 PET bottles.  In total, around a third of each second-generation CrossContact Extreme E tyre consists of recycled and renewable raw materials. 
 
About LuisaViaRoma: Official Fashion Partner 
Defined by the Financial Times as “a haven for directional fashion,” LUISAVIAROMA.COM is the top online luxury fashion destination with 5,000,000 visitors per month and worldwide shipping. With each new season, the website presents the collections of more than 600 established designers and young emerging talents. 
 
About Enel X Way: Official Smart Charging Partner 
Enel X Way is the Enel Group's new global business line entirely dedicated to electric mobility. Currently, Enel X Way manages approximately 320,000 charging points, both directly and through interoperability agreements in place worldwide. As a global platform for e-mobility, the company is focused on developing flexible charging technologies and solutions to improve the customer experience by supporting the electrification of transport for consumers, businesses, cities and public administrations. 
 
Find out more on https://enelxway.it/en/home  and follow Enel X Way on its social media channels: 
 
LinkedIn: Enel X Way  
Twitter: @enelxway 
Instagram: @enelxway   
Facebook: @enelxway 
 
About Zenith: Official Timekeeper and Founding Partner 
Zenith exists to inspire individuals to pursue their dreams and make them come true – against all odds. Since its establishment in 1865, Zenith became the first watch manufacture in the modern sense of the term, and its watches have accompanied extraordinary figures that dreamt big and strived to achieve the impossible – from Louis Blériot’s history-making flight across the English Channel to Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting stratospheric free-fall jump. Zenith is also highlighting visionary and trailblazing women – past and present – by celebrating their accomplishments and creating in 2020 its first-ever collection dedicated entirely to them, Defy Midnight. 
 
With innovation as its guiding star, Zenith features exceptional in-house developed and manufactured movements in all its watches. Since the creation of the El Primero in 1969, the world’s first automatic chronograph calibre, Zenith has gone on to master fractions of the second with the Chronomaster Sport and its 1/10th of a second precision and the DEFY 21 with a precision of 1/100th of a second. 
 
About ENOWA: Official Green Hydrogen Partner 
ENOWA is a world-class energy, water and hydrogen company founded in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. ENOWA produces and delivers clean and sustainable resources for industrial and commercial applications using a customer-centric smart and connected system, designed to be circular and takes advantage of NEOM's optimal solar and wind energy profile. ENOWA benefits from NEOM's greenfield site, which has no legacy infrastructure, to advance Energy, Water, and Hydrogen innovation. 
 
ENOWA will act as a catalyst and incubator for developing new, sustainable energy and water businesses while creating a robust economic sector regionally. Through its commitment to renewable energy and efficient water management, ENOWA seeks to become a global reference for industry leaders and setting a benchmark for sustainable economic circular systems around the world. 
 
For more information, please visit: enowa.neom.com 
 
About Vodafone Business: Official Technology and Communication Partner 
With expertise in connectivity, global scale and the leading IoT platform, Vodafone Business is a leading technology communications company helping organisations succeed in a digital world and keeping society connected. Vodafone’s purpose is to connect for a better future, enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society, and many of its solutions have sustainability and inclusivity embedded. 
 
Unique in its scale as the largest pan-European and African technology communications company, Vodafone transforms the way we live and work through its innovation, technology, connectivity, platforms, products and services. Vodafone operates mobile and fixed networks in 21 countries, and partners with mobile networks in 52 more.  As of 31 December 2021, they had over 300m mobile customers, more than 28m fixed broadband customers and over 22m TV customers. 
 
This collaboration will see Vodafone Business leading innovations and capabilities such as 5G, MPN, IOT and MEC, integrated into Extreme E’s global operations and will include full involvement in the purpose- driven elements of the series, with special prominence on Extreme E’s Legacy Programmes and the Science Laboratory on board the St Helena. Through its IOT solutions, Vodafone Business is helping sustainability efforts, including agriculture, forestation and decarbonisation of energy grids. 
 
Find out more on http://www.Vodafone.com/business  and follow Vodafone on its social media channels: 
 
Twitter: @VodafoneGroup  
LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone 
 
About EY: Official Sustainability Partner 
EY is a global leader in assurance, consulting, strategy, transactions and tax services, and already plays a significant role in working with Extreme E. Originally announcing its collaboration with the championship back in 2020, EY came on board to help Extreme E achieve its commitment to minimising its overall footprint whilst creating a positive legacy. 
 
Whilst Extreme E strives ‘to race without a trace’, the framework provided by EY has helped the series to minimize its environmental impact across each of its remote race locations. Both prior and post-racing impact assessments have supported Extreme E to strategically plan their actions within these areas. 
 
EY and Extreme E will work closely together to promote the five pillars of Extreme E (or “Five Es”) through the adoption of ‘XE Talks’. These informative presentations, facilitated by Extreme E’s Scientific Committee, will shed light on the Five Es, showcasing the joint commitment of EY and Extreme E. 
 
About Allianz: Founding Partner and Official Insurance Partner 
The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with more than 100 million private and corporate customers in more than 70 countries. 
 
Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. 
 
Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 790 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage 1.7 trillion euros of third-party assets. 
 
About CBMM: Founding Supplier  
CBMM | Niobium is a founding supplier of Extreme E and the Championship’s official Niobium Technology Supplier and Chassis Technology Supplier. 
 
Critical to the automotive sector, niobium produces stronger, lighter and more sustainable cars with better energy efficiency. Its technologies are already widely applied in different areas, including light-weighting, safety, emissions reduction and electronics that will help lead to a sustainable sector transformation. Key applications of niobium in the Mobility sector include chassis, brakes and exhaust systems, drivetrains, batteries and EV charging stations and any number of ancillary components. Its qualities mean materials can be made lighter, stronger, more robust and more reliable – all while being more sustainable than other materials.  
 
CBMM offers technical innovation to customers around the globe through a team of over 2,000 highly trained, dedicated professionals providing cutting-edge niobium products and technology to over 400 clients in around 40 countries. 
 
About Kaizen Clean Energy: Official Clean Energy Technology Provider 
Kaizen Clean Energy (KCE), a manufacturer of hydrogen generators, is developing integrated solutions for electric vehicle (EV) charging, hydrogen fuelling, and distributed power for the grid and critical assets. 
 
KCE offers its mobile microgrid to customers through an Energy as a Service contract, which eliminates large capital expenses and provides customers with the flexibility to scale with energy needs over time.  
 
Kaizen Clean Energy will support ENOWA - NEOM’s energy, water, and hydrogen subsidiary and Green Hydrogen Power Partner to Extreme E - in delivering a pioneering hydrogen microgrid solution to the championship. 
 
Find out more on: www.kaizencleanenergy.com.