We recently experienced the thrills of Extreme E for the first time with the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia. Fundamentally, this was an experiment, adapting all-terrain motor racing for a climate-conscious audience, and the first X Prix showed promise.
Saturday consisted of two qualifying rounds: time trials to determine the main races on Sunday. Andretti United’s Catie Munnings, impressively managed to complete her run with a puncture, and multiple cars bore the brunt of the challenging terrain, with DNFs from both ABT CUPRA SE and Veloce Racing in Q1. Luckily, everyone was okay but it proved just how unforgiving the Alula desert is.
The driver line up added another new element to the weekend. All the teams consist of one male and one female driver - a huge step for gender representation in professional motorsport. Each race consisted of 2 laps and the teams had the opportunity to choose which driver would take which lap. Nevertheless, the majority of teams put their male driver first each time. It would have been exciting to see more of a mixture of tactics within the teams. Yet, this was the first X Prix and we’ll have to see what the teams decide ahead of the Ocean X Prix in May.
Sunday was the main event with four races. Finally, we got to witness the cars up close and personal with each other, with some impressive overtakes and gutsy driving. Admittedly, in certain races, once they passed the first couple gates, it felt as if the fate of the race had been sealed, as the car in first place sped away from the others. Not exactly ‘wheel-to-wheel racing’. This wasn’t the case for the Shoot Out as Hürtgen from ABT and Chip Ganassi Racing’s LeDuc collided in a nail-bitingly close race.
After winning GridPlay and therefore being able to choose their starting position, Andretti United went up against Rosberg X Racing and Team X44 in the final. Battling through poor visibility from the dust and the unpredictable terrain, Rosberg X Racing emerged victorious to win the first-ever X Prix, with Kristoffersson and Taylor both driving superbly. Nico Rosberg himself looked extremely proud of the achievement - and also probably very smug to have beaten the team of Lewis Hamilton, his former F1 rival.
The exciting thing about Extreme E is that no two X Prix will be the same. They’ve conquered the desert but now it’s on to Lac Rose in Senegal for the Ocean X Prix. If the first race weekend has taught us anything, it’s that all bets are off when it comes to Extreme E. Who knows what will happen?
Comments