McLaren rollover causes interruption of the final – Johan Kristoffersson still takes the win from third place with a harem ride on the last lap
Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson (Rosberg-X-Racing) have won the 2022 Extreme E season opener in Saudi Arabia. The final had to be interrupted after McLaren driver Tanner Foust rolled over. On the restart, Kristoffersson attacked in third place and still claimed victory.
Behind Kristoffersson/Ahlin-Kottulinsky, Laia Sanz and Carlos Cainz (Accione) finished second. Cristina Gutierrez and Sebastien Loeb (X44) were third on the podium. The season opener of the Extreme E with electric SUVs provided plenty of action at the Desert-X-Prix.
Last year, the Extreme E already made a guest appearance in Saudi Arabia. At that time, the season opener took place in the Al-Ula region. Now the race was held in the north-west of the country in Neom. The marked out course in the desert had a length of just under seven kilometres.
Some accidents in the heats
There were already some incidents in the qualifying heats on Saturday. The worst hit was the British Veloce team. In the first qualifying session Christine “GZ” Giampaoli Zonca was on course for the fastest time, but then the car overturned in a downhill passage.
The driver suffered an injury to her left ankle. On Sunday, the Veloce team competed with the official Extreme E substitute driver Hedda Hosas. Saturday, however, had brought more incidents.
In a qualifying heat, Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (Abt Cupra XE) made a mistake and crashed into the side of his long-time rival Sainz (Acciona). The Spaniard had to park the damaged car. Al-Attiyah received a time penalty.
The qualifying on Saturday was won by the X44 team with Gutierrez/Loeb. Sunday morning the two semi-final races were on the agenda. In semi-final 2, Timmy Hansen caused a spectacular accident during an overtaking attempt.
The Andretti car was levered out and overturned. Hansen was not injured. X44 won Semi-Final 1 and Ganassi Semi-Final 2, with Acciona and Rosberg X securing the other slots in the final. The last place in the final went to McLaren XE, who won the “Crazy Race”.
McLaren rollover causes interruption of the final
The final went over two laps just like the heats. The starting drivers were Loeb (X44), Sara Price (Ganassi), Ahlin-Kottulinsky (Rosberg X), Sainz (Acciona) and Tanner Foust (McLaren XE). The Ganassi team won the grid vote and opted for the middle grid position.
At the start, Sainz took the lead ahead of Loeb. Behind, the McLaren rolled over heavily in the dust in the first minute of the race. Foust crashed into the rear of the Rosberg car in the dust. The US-American was not injured after several rollovers.
Loeb was chasing the leader Sainz at the front and was able to keep up despite poor visibility in the dust. It was a duel between Acciona and X44. Both were outpacing the remaining two cars by more than ten seconds.
When the remaining four cars reached the transition zone, the race control stopped the race. The crashed McLaren was still on the track and had to be towed away. During the interruption, the driver changes took place.
Sainz handed over to Sanz, Loeb to Gutierrez, Ahlin-Kottulinsky to Kristoffersson and Price to Kyle LeDuc. With the second drivers, there was a restart over the remaining lap. It was started including the time gaps from before the abandonment.
Restart: Kristoffersson from third place to victory
Sanz started the decider with a lead of around three seconds over Gutierrez. Kristoffersson set off about nine seconds behind. He quickly got closer to the leading duo as he was the third car with a little less dust and a slightly better view.
Kristoffersson also grabbed second place from Gutierrez. Sanz was only two seconds ahead at this point. Kristoffersson took the lead in the final third of the track with a wide turn on an outside lane to take the win.
At the finish, the defending champion had just over two seconds on Sanz. Gutierrez finished just under six seconds behind in third. “He’s a machine, absolutely epic,” commented Ahlin-Kottulinsky on her teammate Kristoffersson’s drive.
“It wasn’t easy,” the four-time World Rallycross Champion breathed. “It’s not often that I have such an adrenaline rush in the car. I didn’t see much. I gave it my all and found completely new lines.”
“Finally I overtook Cristina and then I found more speed than I thought in turn 21 and overtook Laia on the outside in turn 22. There I stayed fully on the gas. That was the key to the win.”
After the season opener, Rosberg-X-Racing leads the championship with 30 points. Acciona follow behind with 18 points and X44 with 15.
The second stop of the Extreme E season will take place on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where races will be held on 7 and 8 May.
