This weekend the Veloce Racing Extreme E squad heads to Capo Teulada in Sulcis-Iglesiente in Sardinia for the Enel X Island X Prix. The team will be hoping to bounce back following a captivating semi-final last time out in Greenland which, despite a fearless lunge over the infamous ‘Rock Garden’, ultimately ended in heartbreak for Stéphane Sarrazin, Emma Gilmour and the team.
This course, like each one so far, will present a whole new set of challenges for car and driver. After a hot Italian summer, the ground will be baked hard compared to the soft sands teams have become accustomed to. Not only that, but the terrain will also be rutted and the course will feature fast, downhill sections, water splashes, and natural obstacles in the form of trees and bushes. The full course will be revealed later this week.
Having ended the Arctic X Prix with a broken suspension and finishing just shy of a spot in the Final, Sarrazin’s all-or-nothing gamble will certainly be remembered as one of the moments of the inaugural Extreme E season.
New Zealander Emma Gilmour’s debut weekend with the team saw her showing excellent pace and gaining momentum throughout the event. Now, with an established relationship with Frenchman Sarrazin, the dynamic duo are sure to put in some eye-catching performances in Sardinia.
“In Greenland, we came so close to the Final so naturally we are all wanting to get back on the course,” commented Stéphane Sarrazin. “We had strong pace last time out so I think we can definitely capitalise on that and now Emma [Gilmour] and I have had more time working as a team, I think we can bag a good result in Sardinia.”
The Enel X Island X Prix will follow the same format as the Arctic X Prix with qualifying taking place on Saturday 23 October. There will be one session in the morning and one in the afternoon with each team completing two laps of the course, one per driver with a Driver Switch. The times recorded across the morning session will equate to classification points meaning first place receives 9 points, second place 8, third place 7 and so on. The same then happens in the afternoon with classification points awarded on the same scale.
The combined total of these classification points provides the intermediate standings, and the remaining races will take place as follows:
The teams will be listed 1st to 9th place based on the total combined points of each team’s two Qualifying runs.
Teams placed in first, fifth and sixth progress to Semi-Final 1, where the top two finishers claim spots in the Enel X Island X Prix Final.
Second, third and fourth from Qualifying go through to Semi-Final 2, where again the top two progress to the Enel X Island X Prix Final.
The bottom three teams (7th, 8th and 9th) head to the Crazy Race, with the winner reaching the Enel X Island X Prix Final.
The Enel X Island X Prix Final features five cars.
The nine teams and 18 drivers are as follows:
Veloce Racing – #5 – Stéphane Sarrazin / Emma Gilmour
ABT CUPRA XE – #125 – Mattias Ekström / Jutta Kleinschmidt
ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team – #55 – Carlos Sainz Snr. / Laia Sanz
Andretti United Extreme E – #23 – Timmy Hansen / Catie Munnings
SEGI TV Chip Ganassi Racing – #99 – Kyle LeDuc / Sara Price
XITE ENERGY RACING powered by myenergi – #42 – Oliver Bennett / Christine GZ
JBXE – #22 – Kevin Hansen / Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky
Rosberg X Racing – #6 – Johan Kristoffersson / Molly Taylor
X44 – #44 – Sébastien Loeb / Cristina Gutiérrez
Comments