New season, old habits. And if there’s one deep-rooted tradition at Extreme E, it’s that the X44 team dominates the standings at every X-Prix. Five of five were scored in the inaugural campaign and he already has the first of this year in his pocket. Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez have once again been the most complete drivers in the Desert X-Prix qualifying, even if the two rounds of the session have been played with a different format. While the ‘Qualy 1’ has taken place in a direct fight against the clockthe ‘Qualy2’ has been made up of two races.
The theory said that there were two qualifying rounds through crossovers in race format, but the reality is that the ‘Qualy1’ has been held with the same format as last year. Direct fight against the clock and two laps with driver change. A scenario in which Rosberg X Racing has been imposed by the hand of Johan Kristofferson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinskyamong other things for the penalties received by X44, Andretti United, Chip Ganassi and Abt CUPRA.
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The very strong accident of Christine Giampaoli with the Veloce Racing Odyssey 21 It has been, without a doubt, the negative note of this first day. In fact, the first race of the ‘Qualy 2’ has been disputed with four cars in a duel in which Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez have imposed their law after beating Sara Price and Kyle LeDuc, Ganassi drivers. However, the race has been marked by the strong touch between Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah when the CUPRA driver overtook the Spanish.
The second heat left a nice start with the five Odyssey 21 in parallel. Timmy Hansen took the lead with the Andretti United 4×4 ahead of a combative Tanner Foust who was looking for alternative routes with McLaren to overtake his rival. However, the firm from Woking was out of the fight for victory after suffering mechanical problems in the driver change. Although Johan Kristoffersson ended up beating Catie Munnings over the finish line, orA 17-second penalty on RXR left Andretti United drivers Hansen and Munnings ahead.
Once the points from the two races and the previous qualifying session have been added up, Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez have prevailed with 19 units, placing the X44 car in the first semi-final. There they will fight with XITE Energy -fourth- and RXR -fifth- after the sanction received by the champion team. For its part, Andretti United, Chip Ganassi and ABT Cupra will face each other in the second semi-final. They will look for the last place for the final ACCIONA, JBXE and McLaren drivers in the ‘Crazy Race’.