As Extreme E prepares for its first South American X Prix, the stage is set for some exciting midfield battles in Chile. Leading the charge is X44 Vida Carbon Racing (4th – 41 points), with XITE ENERGY Racing and Genesys Andretti United Extreme E level on points (5th/6th – 27 points), and JBXE closing in (7th – 21 points) after all four teams secured a podium in Sardinia.
X44 Vida Carbon Racing remain on the coattails of the top three, just one point behind ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team in third and two points adrift of No.99 GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing in second.
X44 Vida Carbon Racing began their Season 2 campaign in ominous fashion, setting the right tone with first place in Qualifying at the Desert X Prix, but Lewis Hamilton’s outfit narrowly missed out on victory in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, with Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez securing third in the Final.
The NEOM Island X Prix I was the first race without X44 at the top of the Qualifying standings and the first event that didn’t have Loeb and Gutiérrez competing in the Final, after suffering from ill-fortune throughout the first event of the double-header. That meant last season’s Championship runners up could only manage sixth.
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A strong comeback in the second part of the double-header saw the team finish second in Qualifying and first in their Semi-Final Heat, setting them up nicely for the NEOM Island X Prix II Final. Their pace was good enough for second place and their best result of the season so far.
Sitting fifth on the leader board is XITE ENERGY Racing, who entered Sardinia with a new driver line-up. Former Championship Driver, Timo Scheider, followed in the footsteps of Tamara Molinaro, who made her debut for the team in NEOM having previously been a Championship Driver herself.
Despite her late call-up, Molinaro was competitive alongside Oli Bennett, her previous racing partner, throughout the Season 2 opener, helping the team secure fourth overall in Qualifying. In Semi-Final 1, Molinaro took on the might of Rosberg X Racing (RXR) and X44 Vida Carbon Racing for a place in the Final.
At the NEOM Island X Prix I, the Scheider and Molinaro partnership made an instant impact, becoming podium finishers in the series for the first time. The former colleagues now team-mates secured XITE ENERGY Racing’s best-ever result when they finished second in Sardinia, and the pair have been confirmed as the team’s drivers for the rest of the season.
Following the high of their first podium and Molinaro recovering from a shoulder injury following the previous Final, XITE ENERGY Racing ended up in the Crazy Race of the NEOM Island X Prix II where Molinaro spun off course, unsighted by the dust from a spin for Veloce Racing’s Lance Woolridge. This unfortunately meant the team were denied back-to-back Finals.
Tamara Molinaro, XITE ENERGY Racing, said: “It has been a pleasure to race for XITE Energy Racing in Extreme E Season 2 and I am extremely happy to stay in the seat for the rest of the season. To go from Championship Driver, to competing in the series to a podium finisher gives me a lot of satisfaction.
“Racing in Chile and Uruguay is really exciting and definitely a bit of a step into the unknown. However, Timo and I have already proven we can show great pace and work well together so I am hopeful that we can get more positive results this season.”
Timo Scheider, XITE ENERGY Racing, said: “I am thrilled to be racing the final two races of Extreme E Season 2 with XITE ENERGY Racing. I feel extremely passionate about this Championship and cannot wait to get behind the wheel again in Chile.
“For Tamara and I to bag a podium in our first race together was amazing and I look forward to us and the team building on that momentum in South America.”
Winners of that Crazy Race were Genesys Andretti United Extreme E, who secured a spot in the NEOM Island X Prix II Final following a disappointing first two races of the season.
Having crashed out of their Semi-Final in the season opener in NEOM, Catie Munnings and Timmy Hansen aimed to hit the ground running in the next round.
A strong performance in Qualifying and an exciting battle between Hansen and RXR’s Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky in the Semi-Finals of the NEOM Island X Prix I showed all the signs of a successful week for the team, but they were unable to progress to the Final.
Having delivered speed but not results, it was the turn of Munnings to deliver some thrilling wheel-to-wheel action in the second part of the double-header, as she held off Veloce Racing’s Woolridge and JBXE’s Kevin Hansen to take the Crazy Race honours.
It was a four-way scrap for the win in the Final, but ABT CUPRA XE’s disqualification due to a safety infringement secured Genesys Andretti United Extreme E a spot on the third step of the podium. This marked their first top three finish of the season, which was a huge boost after a difficult start to the campaign.
Seventh in the standings are JBXE. The team looked to make a strong start to Season 2 after their third-place finish in the standings last year, but a difficult start to the Desert X Prix put them in the Crazy Race where they lost out to McLaren XE in the closing stages.
Hansen also suffered a serious back injury which ensured a period of rehabilitation prior to the Sardinian double-header. Prior to NEOM, Hansen had reached the podium in all four of the X Prix he had competed in.
The Swede was to make a welcome full recovery, though, and returned to the Extreme E paddock alongside new team-mate Hedda Hosås, replacing Molly Taylor, looking to get the team back into the top three of a race.
A win in Semi-Final 2 of the NEOM Island X Prix I was just the start they needed, with debutant Hosås managing to stay ahead of Carlos Sainz Snr. for victory. JBXE took that pace into the Final, returning to podium ways with third place following the penalty for RXR that put them down to fifth.
Jenson Button’s outfit came up against their closest rivals in Season 1, Genesys Andretti United Extreme E, in the Crazy Race of the NEOM Island X Prix II. Pushing hard in second as he chased his brother, Kevin Hansen ended up in a spin, hitting the waypoint flag as he tried to recover, and thus missed out on back-to-back Sardinian Finals.
With two new races on the Extreme E calendar to go, RXR look to be the firm favourites for back-to-back Championship titles, but it’s all to play for in the midfield with just 20 points separating the four teams.
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