Rosberg X Racing scored victory in the opening round to kick off their title defence in style. They survived the chaos when most teams suffered penalties or rolls on Sunday.
In the final it was a perfect start for Acciona Sainz with Carlos Sainz at the wheel. The field quickly got into line with Team X44 second, RXR 3rd, McLaren 4th and Chip Ganassi in last. Coming round the next couple of bends the dust being kicked up reduced visibility to zero for the following cars and Tanner Foust onboard the McLaren slammed into the back of Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky in the RXR machine. Foust was launched up then rolled as he hit the desert sand.
The race continued with the teams remaining in the same order until the switch zone. There the race was red flagged to remove the stranded car. The restart procedure saw the cars leave the start line with the gaps maintained from when they ended lap 1. Laia Sanz jumped into the lead car with a 2 second advantage over Cristina Gutiérrez with Johan Kristofferson and Kyle LeDuc 12 and 20 seconds back respectively.
Kristofferson closed in on the leaders throughout the final lap with the top 3 separated by just 4 seconds heading into the final couple of kilometres. With dust and the low sun combining it made visibility an issue and both the second and third place cars took wide lines in the back sequence of corners in a bid to find some time and see the competition ahead.
Despite taking the tightest line into the next right hander Kristofferson carried good speed through the corner. Immediately he deployed his hyperdrive to give him a boost which he used to edge past Team X44. He carried good momentum all the way across the flat and closed in on the leader. Sanz responded and used her hyperdrive to power up the steep sand bank.
Coming down that hill Kristofferson was able to carry more speed and dived up the inside of the penultimate corner. He ran the car very wide but used the alternate low line to carry more speed than Sanz. He crested the final hill at the last corner before dropping down the steep dune to win the final. Sanz held onto 2nd place by 2 seconds ahead of Team X44’s Gutiérrez. LeDuc was unable to gain ground and ended up some 25 seconds back from the leader.
Semi Final 1
Rosberg X Racing had been lucky to qualify for the Saudi Arabian final having finished last in their race. They led after the opening sequence of gates but Xite Energy Racing’s Tamara Molinaro challenged the reigning champions and looked to get past out of the tight rocky section. She made light contact before dropping back to last after a small mistake.
This put Team X44 into second place with a slender gap over Xite Energy. Bennett challenged coming out of the switch zone going side by side through the first few gates. He slotted into last with the pressure being firmly applied to second. However, he knocked over the gate marker while exiting the rocky section which netted the team a 10 second penalty.
Out front Åhlin-Kottulinsky made a mistake on a rutted section of track and lost a lot of time. Sebastian Loeb flew by and Bennett got alongside but was unable to pass. A few corners later RXR made another mistake this time dropping to last. Åhlin-Kottulinsky closed in on 2nd place on the run to the line but came up 0.07s short. Thanks to the 10 second penalty for Xite Energy Racing she was still able to progress to the final.
Semi Final 2
LeDuc carried more speed around the outside of turn 1 to lead the second Semi-final. He pulled a 14 second advantage over the chasing pack with Acciona Sainz ahead of Andretti United. Timmy Hansen took over the last place car and looked to overtake for second place. He took a different line through the grass in a bid to close on Sainz. However, he hit a couple of bumps in quick succession which rolled the car end over end. Chip Ganassi secured the win with Sainz settling for second and a guaranteed spot in the final.
Crazy Race
The last place in the final came from the 4 car crazy race. Lance Woolridge for Veloce Racing took the lead but broke the power steering after landing heavily from a 2 wheeled moment at turn 2. The team were unable to fix it and finished last in the race. JBXE took the lead with Emma Gilmour for McLaren going into 2nd place with an around the outside overtake. Kevin Hansen kept the lead until the changeover where reigning champion Molly Taylor took over the car.
Foust looked to chase the Australian down with 2022 Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah closely following in 3rd. Foust closed the 11 second margin down to the leader. On the run up the large hill Foust found the inside line and took the leader. Taylor ran wide at the next bend gifting ABT Cupra second place. McLaren won the Crazy Race by a few second to claim the last spot in the final.
Image Credit: Extreme E
Qualifying
The rules were changed on the day so that Q1 would be run 1 car at a time like 2021. Q2 would run as originally intended with 5 car races and points given out for race position not overall time.
Team X44 maintained their 100% record in qualifying after a series of quick runs. They were second quickest in Q1 even after a penalty for clipping a flag. They then won their semi-final. Andretti United also overcame a penalty in Q1 to go second in qualifying after winning their heat race.
Chip Ganassi were 3rd ahead of reigning champions RXR. They looked set to win their qualifying race thanks to an amazing pass on the run to the line. However, Åhlin-Kottulinsky had sped on the way into the changeover zone by 17km/h which netted the car a 17 second penalty. Xite were tied on points with RXR but classified behind them after a slower Traction challenge time. All the remaining teams suffered major issues.
Acciona Sainz were 6th despite not finishing in Q2. In their race Al-Attiyah for ABT Cupra dived up the inside to overtake Sainz. However the Qatari driver ran wide and tried to cut back to not miss the next gate. He hit a bump and went onto 2 wheels before ploughing into the side of Sainz forcing the Spanish driver into retirement. ABT were penalised into last place. That penalty and missing the finish line at the end of their Q1 run, the team scored only 5 points putting them in 9th.
7th and 8th were JBXE and McLaren. JBXE suffered a suspension failure in Q1 which dropped them to last of the finishers. While McLaren finished last in their Q2 race after struggling to restart the car after the driver changeover.
Veloce Racing propped up the qualifying standings after suffering a large crash. Near the end of the second lap Christine GZ rolled the car after being caught out by a bump. The car was wrecked and didn’t run in Q2. GZ suffered a fractured foot putting her out of the weekend and reserve driver Hedda Hosås took her place. The Norwegian would not get to race at full speed as when she took over the car in the Crazy race it had no power steering and was already over a minute behind the field.
Points
Rosberg X Racing made it a perfect score for the weekend. They won the event netting 25 points for the win as well as an additional 5 for Kristofferson’s final lap through the Super Sector. The test of the teams scored points based on the standard FIA points format with Acciona Sainz on 18, Team X44 on 15 and Chip Ganassi on 12.
The next round will take place on the 7-8th May in Sardinia for the second running of the Island X-Prix. The cars will be given an upgrade thanks to a longer gap from round 1 until round 2 than the 2021 season finale and this round.
Feature Image Credit: Extreme E
