As the series heads to Chile for the penultimate X Prix of Extreme E Season 2, those ranked eighth to tenth in the Championship have nothing to lose as they look to climb up the Championship standings.
NEOM McLaren XE, Veloce Racing and ABT CUPRA XE have all shown glimpses of what it takes to win in a race in Extreme E, but their pace is yet to yield results.
Sitting at the bottom of the standings with nineteen, seven and six points respectively, the current back runners will be giving it their all to get solid points in Chile.
NEOM McLaren Extreme E nearly had the debut of dreams in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. Drivers, Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmour, delivered a thrilling performance on track to win the Crazy Race and secure a place in the Final first-time around.
A nasty accident for Foust in the Final denied them a shot at victory in their first ever X Prix, but their efforts set expectations high for the action to come in Sardinia.
The team started off the double-header as they hoped to go on, finishing third in Free Practice, but a DNF in Qualifying 1 denied them a spot in the Semi-Finals. All hopes of making it two Crazy Race wins from two ended with another crash for the team, this time for Gilmour just metres from the Start Line.
Following an impressive rebuild by the team, Gilmour and Foust took on Qualifying in the second part of the double-header. Despite driving a hastily repaired ODYSSEY 21, both drivers put in solid performances to secure that elusive spot in the Semi-Finals but failed to make it into the last race of the weekend.
Gilmour and Foust currently sit eighth in the Championship standings on 19 points, but with two rounds to go and fifth place just eight points ahead, there is every chance NEOM McLaren Extreme E could still gain some places.
The action-packed Sardinian double-header saw Christine GZ back in action for Veloce Racing alongside Lance Woolridge, as both drivers looked to build on the pace shown in Qualifying at the season opener in NEOM.
Veloce Racing looked set for one of the quickest Qualifying times at the Desert X Prix until a crash for GZ took the team out of contention and the Spaniard out of action for the following months as she recovered from the subsequent ankle injury.
Sardinia offered the British outfit a shot at redemption. Double the racing meant double the points, and the team managed to move off the bottom of the standings.
It was familiar territory for Veloce Racing when they suffered a difficult Qualifying session in both parts of the NEOM Island X Prix double-header. This meant that the team battled it out in both Crazy Races and were unlucky to miss out on a spot in the second Final of the week.
A fantastic display from Woolridge and Genesys Andretti United Extreme E’s Catie Munnings saw both drivers racing on the edge as they fought for first place.
There was drama from the outset as Woolridge went side-by-side with Genesys Andretti United Extreme E on the run down to the first turn. Woolridge kept Munnings under pressure throughout the lap until the South African tried to squeeze his ODYSSEY 21 down the inside of his rival over a jump, and the subsequent contact tipped the Veloce car into an unfortunate half spin.
As the first part of the double-header in Sardinia neared its end, it looked as though ABT Cupra XE had secured their first Final appearance of Extreme E Season 2.
However, a time-penalty in the Switch Zone for completing the driver change before the minimum time, as well as a further penalty received for hitting a waypoint flag, ensured they dropped to third in the race and ninth overall at the NEOM Island X Prix I.
Having also fallen just short in the Crazy Race at the first event of the season, the team were determined to avoid making it three from three at the NEOM Island X Prix II.
Following a consistent two rounds of Qualifying in the second X Prix of the week, ABT CUPRA XE progressed to the Semi-Finals for the first time this year.
It was a tense duel between ABT CUPRA XE’s Jutta Kleinschmidt and NEOM McLaren XE’s Emma Gilmour, with the former defending her second place impeccably to keep the latter at bay and ensure ABT CUPRA XE’s spot in the Final.
On the preferred line ABT CUPRA XE surged to the front of the final five and just five seconds separated the front three as Al-Attiyah began to pull away from Johan Kristoffersson and Sébastien Loeb.
It was still a four-way tear up for the win as the teams entered the Switch Zone until disaster struck for ABT CUPRA XE. During the driver change, Jutta Kleinschmidt failed to properly buckle her seatbelt before setting off on her lap. This later lead to the team’s disqualification from the Final, after they finished second on the course.
With just two races to go, the teams at the bottom of the standings will need to push hard in Chile next weekend (24-25 September) to get the points they need to get ahead of the competition.
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