LOEB AND GUTTIERREZ SURVIVE THE ULTIMATE DRAMA FOR EXTREME E TITLE
Driving for Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team in an Extreme E season finale of high drama in Uruguay, Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez battled back from a huge accident in the opening stages of the weekend to make it to the podium and snatch the title from the grasps of Nico Rosberg’s RXR squad.
RXR drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky entered the final round of the campaign with a 17-point advantage at the head of the table but, due to technical issues in the penultimate event in Chile, hadn’t quite put the title out of the reach of their rivals.
On a grass- and dirt-based course in Uruguay, Swede Ahlin-Kottulinsky was among those to run into trouble in the opening qualifying session of the weekend. With cars running one at a time on track, the RXR machine rolled onto its roof. She hadn’t been alone either as JBXE driver Hedda Hosas was the first to trip up and the pair were subsequently followed by X44’s Gutierrez, the latter having the biggest of the incidents.
While the JBXE and RXR teams were able to repair their cars for qualifying two, X44 had to switch to the spare ‘championship’ car, such was the damage to its own machine.
In Q2, Kristoffersson led from the front of his race for RXR but was rear-ended in the opening stint by Nasser Al-Attiyah, causing significant damage to the RXR machine, which then failed in the driver-switch zone and Ahlin-Kottulinsky was unable to complete the run.
X44, meanwhile, backed out of the pack in the other race, Loeb opting to instead push hard for the best time in the Super Sector. He was already resigned to starting in the crazy race on Sunday but he knew that the five points for the best time in the Super Sector could prove pivotal, and so they did.
While the Acciona Sainz and Chip Ganassi Racing teams, both also with an outside chance of the title, both qualified for the semi-finals, the qualifying order was led by new Veloce Racing signings Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor. The X44 and RXR teams were forced to compete in the Crazy Race, the winner of which taking up the final grid position for the final.
If RXR won the Crazy Race, it would take the crown for a second year in succession. However if X44 won the fight would remain wide-open.
In a contact-filled dramatic opening few corners of the Crazy Race the RXR machine, driven by Ahlin-Kottulinsky, suffered broken steering. X44 was leading out front, fending off the attentions of the Xite Energy Racing team. Ahlin-Kottulinsky dragged the Rosberg car to the driver-switch zone, where the squad attempted to repair the car for five-time World RX champion Kristoffersson to head out on track in a bid to better Loeb’s Super Sector effort, albeit with the track in worse condition. But the team was disqualified for having too many mechanics in the switch area.
With RXR watching from the sidelines, the ABT Cupra squad led from the front in the final, Klara Andersson and Nassar Al-Attiyah winning on Andersson’s first full race weekend, while McLaren finished second with Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmour.
X44 battled in the dust and couldn’t finish higher than fourth on track, having fought for the lead in the opening corners. One place away from the titlewinning third place they needed, the team was elevated a position when they Andretti United team was given a seven-second Switch Zone penalty, handing X44 third in the race and the crown.
Results
Extreme E Round 5: (All Odyssey 21): 1 Nasser Al-Attiyah/Klara Andersson (ABT Cupra) 10m26.537s; 2 Emma Gilmour/Tanner Foust (McLaren) +3.427s; 3 Sebastien Loeb/Cristina Gutierrez (X44) +10.467s; 4 Timmy Hansen/Catie Munnings (Andretti United) +11.029s; 5 Kevin Hansen/Molly Taylor (Veloce Racing) +15.094s.