Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor have won the Island X-Prix, thus conquering the third win of the season for the Rosberg X Racing team. Although this victory on the island of Sardinia has not yet delivered the title to the duo of pilots from Nico Rosberg’s formation, the truth is that achievement together with the successes achieved in Saudi Arabia and Senegal leave the resolution of the title very much in the face of Kristofferson and Taylor. In a rather lackluster ending, the Abt CUPRA team of Mattias Ekström and Jutta Kleinschmidt has achieved its first podium when finishing in second position. Third place went to Kevin Hansen and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, JBXE pilots.
The Island X-Prix final started with the five Odyssey 21s involved after the great work of the Team X44 mechanics to repair Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez’s car. And the French corresponded to this great job with a great departure. In fact, Sébastien Loeb was placed as the first leader ahead of Mikkaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, pilot who started the race for JBXE. Nevertheless, Kyle LeDuc surprised them both another way and took the lead ahead of Loeb while Swedish driver Ahlin-Kottulinsky lost control of her 4×4 and had a spin that made him fall to last position.
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The race was stabilized with Kyle LeDuc in front, followed by Loeb and a Molly Taylor who managed to avoid all the incidents of the first meters with the Odyssey 21 of the RXR team. And everything was looking up for the leaders of Extreme E since Sébastien Loeb had to retire after breaking the left front suspension of his prototype. Oblivious to the problem of his main pursuer, Kyle LeDuc entered with Chip Ganassi’s Odyssey 21 in the driver change zone with an income of more than 40 seconds over his closest rival. Behind, Jutta Kleinschmidt was on top of Molly Taylor.
Sara Price started the second phase of the race with more than enough advantage to dream of victory. However, Extreme E has proven to be a capricious category and when it had barely contested a third of its stint, Sara Price’s Odyssey 21 suspension said enough and left the Chip Ganassi team without a win. With everything in the face, Johann Kristoffersson did manage to reach the goal smoothly to ensure victory. Almost 25 seconds behind Mattias Ekström crossed the line with the Odyssey 21 of the Abt CUPRA team. With a lost lap, the last step of the podium was for JBXE.
Kevin Hansen and Mikkaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky thus saved a podium that seemed unlikely after the initial spin of the team’s female driver. However, the suspension dropouts by Chip Ganassi Racing and X44 played in favor of the drivers of Jenson Button’s team. in an event closure that was once again tarnished by breakdowns of these two 4x4s in a final to five in which the RXR team prevailed at the end seeing how the cars ahead were getting on the road. And unfortunately it seems to be a weak point of these prototypes.
Extreme E 2021 Island X-Prix Final Results