ROSBERG’S TEAM KEEPS UP THE PRESSURE IN SARDINIA
OCTOBER 23-24
Triple World Rallycross champion
Johan Kristoffersson and Rosberg X Racing team-mate Molly Taylor claimed their third win from four rounds in the allelectric Extreme E series at the Island X Prix in Sardinia as their competitors suffered numerous steering failures.
The team battled back from Taylor rolling the car on the opening day to win their semi-final and make it onto the fivecar final grid. Nine-time World rally champion Sebastien Loeb had topped qualifying for Lewis Hamilton’s X44 outfit with team-mate Cristina Gutierrez for the fourth consecutive round, but Gutierrez crashed out of the semi-final and the team only made the final grid after Timmy Hansen was handed a penalty for causing the Spanish driver’s ‘off’.
In the final, Loeb stormed to the early lead but was passed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle LeDuc, who pulled out a 45-second margin before reaching the driver switch zone. Loeb meanwhile initially suffered a front-left puncture, then retired with broken steering soon after.
Running second into the switch zone, Taylor fended off a challenge from Jutta Kleinschmidt, the Dakar winner having had a slow start when the ABT entry was not in drive mode when the lights changed. Kristoffersson and fellow World RX champion Mattias Ekstrom took over from Taylor and Kleinschmidt respectively for lap two and ran 1-2 after Sara Price was also forced out with broken steering on the Chip Ganassi car.
Kristoffersson then controlled the race while Ekstrom’s door fell off and Jenson Button’s JBXE team was classified third, despite Kevin Hansen stopping with technical issues.
Of the British drivers, Catie Munnings didn’t make the final following team-mate Timmy Hansen’s penalty, while Oliver Bennett’s Xite Energy Racing team retired from the last-chance Crazy
Race with broken steering.
Results
Round 4: 1 Rosberg X Racing (Johan Kristoffersson/ Molly Taylor) 11m42.963s; 2 ABT CUPRA XE (Mattias Ekstrom/Jutta Kleinschmidt) +24.588s; 3 JBXE (Kevin Hansen/Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky) -1 lap; 4 SEGE TV Chip Ganassi Racing (Kyle Leduc/Sara Price) -1 lap; 5 X44 (Sebastien Loeb/Cristina Gutierrez) -2 laps