Veloce Racing became the first repeat winners of the 2023 Extreme E season after prevailing in difficult conditions in the second part of the Hydro X Prix in Scotland.
Forecast heavy downpours stayed away for much of the day, but the arrival of rain in the hour before the redemption race and the final presented another challenge for the drivers as they contended with reduced grip and limited visibility.
The Veloce team of Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor made the best start in the final, resisting light contact from the Acciona Sainz entry to lead out of the first corner — a crucial move with the clean air of the lead helping them avoid the visibility issues that would plague the rest of the field.
Hansen controlled the race out in front early on, while behind him Acciona Sainz’s Mattias Ekstrom was under pressure from McLaren’s Tanner Foust, who found a way past around the outside going into Waypoint 24 at the end of the first lap.
Foust then began to hunt down Hansen, closing the gap to 1.2 seconds mid-way through the second lap. But as the McLaren car closed on the leaders, the knock-on effect of reduced visibility in the Veloce car’s wake became prevalent and the gap grew to 3.8s by the mid-race driver switch.
The winning moment for @veloce_racing 🏆#ExtremeE #HydroXPrix pic.twitter.com/L4Ep6Q6M4D
— Extreme E (@ExtremeELive) May 14, 2023
A hectic scramble to clear the McLaren’s windshield for Emma Gilmour’s stint in the car proved to be fruitless, with the Veloce machine — helmed by Taylor for the second half of the race — coming home unchallenged out in front.
Third place went to GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing’s RJ Anderson and Amanda Sorensen who recovered from a dismal start amid yet more visibility issues to claw their way back. They were helped by contact between Acciona Sainz and Rosberg X Racing (Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky), the latter of which spent most of the final without working wipers.
On the penultimate lap, the two came together, and with both cars’ views obscured by mud, a calamitous head-to-head collision followed as both attempted to rejoin the race. The incident ended RXR’s race on the spot, while Laia Sanz crashed the Acciona Sainz car on the final lap.
Hydro X Prix II Final
1. Veloce Racing 12m52.663
2. McLaren +6.419s
3. GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing +20.490s
4. Acciona Sainz DNF
5. Rosberg X Racing DNF
After the fog of yesterday slimmed down that schedule to just one qualifying round, today normal service of two lots of heat races returned.
The first pair were won by Ganassi from RXR and Abt Cupra, X44, and Carl Cox Motorsport, while Acciona Sainz took the second from McLaren, Veloce Racing, JBXE, and Andretti Altawkilat.
In Q2, Gilmour made a strong start to lead the first heat out of the first corner, but lost control moments later and collided with a track-lining hay bales. Timo Scheider in the Carl Cox car similarly lost control, while trying to avoid both, Klara Andersson locked up, went through the bales and ended up in the water on the other side resulting in a second event-ending crash for the Abt Cupra team in as many days as the red flag flew.
The JBXE car of Hedda Hosas and Andreas Bakkerud avoided the carnage, but persistent driveshaft issues prevented them from taking the restart — that was once again led by McLaren, but a speeding penalty through the crash site which was under yellow flags promoted the Ganassi entry to another heat win.
In the second Q2 heat, Sanz hit Ahlin Kottulinsky twice off the start, the second hit forcing the RXR car into the path of X44’s Cristina Gutierrez.
The Veloce and Andretti Altawkilat cars had avoided the melee and resumed their battle once the race restarted following the crash clean-up, with Veloce prevailing.
As a result of the qualifying damage, Carl Cox Motorsport missed the redemption race, while X44 was forced to use the championship’s spare car and failed to finish.
JBXE bounced back from their earlier troubles to win the redemption race, ahead of Andretti which missed out on the final due to a Traction Challenge sector in qualifying. Abt Cupra was third.
Hydro X Prix II Redemption Race
1. JBXE 12m19.448s
2. Andretti Altawkilat +4.968s
3. Abt Cupra +30.534s
4. X44 Vida Carbon Racing DNF
5. Carl Cox Motorsport DNS