Two Extreme E races, two wins for Rosberg’s Kristoffersson/Taylor

Rosberg X Racing teammates Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor reigned supreme once more at Extreme E’s second event in Lac Rose, Dakar, Senegal today with the duo overcoming intense pressure from their adversaries to be crowned winners of the Ocean X Prix.

It was high drama in the grand final for the electric SUV off-road racing series with two of the four cars retiring at the first corner. That left Rosberg X Racing to extend its championship lead and Veloce Racing to snatch a surprise result, bouncing back from a disastrous Desert X Prix.

The tight and technical Ocean X Prix course was a hit with the all-star field of Extreme E drivers and yielded close racing and several options for alternate routes which were deployed throughout the two days of competition.

It was Segi TV Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle LeDuc who took the Super Sector title, earning an extra five points for his team setting the fastest time of 1m50.891s -- 1.289s ahead of X44’s Sebastien Loeb.

AS IT HAPPENED

Drama unfolded before the first corner in the Ocean X prix grand Final as GridPlay winners Veloce Racing opted to start on the third grid slot, but the advantage was quickly lost as Stephane Sarrazin was squeezed out at the first gate dropping back to last position.

Wild moment for Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images

Molly Taylor and Sarrazin were therefore left to duke it out for the lead, with the Frenchman closing the gap throughout the lap and ending his stint hot on the heels of the 2016 Australian Rally champion.

To ensure officials could safely clear the stricken X44 and JBXE cars, a brief red flag was deployed, as the intense battle for the lead was put on hold whilst the drivers made their way into the switch zone.

A standing start restart was initiated as Jamie Chadwick and Johan Kristoffersson prepared for an all or nothing, one-lap showdown.

A close-fought drag race down to the first gate ended with light contact between the two ODYSSEY 21s handing Kristoffersson the advantage. Once he had reached the technical section of the course, the three-time FIA World Rallycross Champion began to stretch his legs opening up a 15-second advantage to win Rosberg X Racing’s second Extreme E X prix in succession.

Molly Taylor, Rosberg X Racing driver, said: “It’s so fantastic to have won today! Coming here, it felt like we had a lot of work to do over the weekend, and it certainly didn’t come easy, but with every session we just kept our heads down and just saw where we needed to improve, and everything totally paid off in the end.

“It’s difficult to predict anything in Extreme E even when you have the best laid plan, but the team was awesome, and Johan really did a phenomenal job too.

“Obviously, we didn’t get to choose our grid position for the final, so we were where we were and that for me was on the inside, so it was all about trying to get the track position - I really just tried to get that established as early as I could and then hold onto it. It’s a steep bank and pretty tight coming into turn one, and as I went through, I made some contact, but this is close racing and that can happen.

“A really huge thanks to the team who did an incredible job and to Johan, equally incredible.

“I’m just really delighted to have won and it’s been an amazing weekend!”

Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing driver, said: “I’m super happy to be Extreme E winners for the second time! Molly executed everything perfectly, she did an amazing job taking care of the traffic in her lap - I was really impressed with that. The team also did a fantastic job, I have to say a big thanks to them for bringing me and Molly up to speed over the weekend, as we really weren’t the fastest coming into this event but in the end, we were quick where we needed to be and got good starts, so we couldn’t wish for more than that. It’s very important as well to keep the car in one piece as you get heavily penalized if you aren’t able to finish a race – so that in itself can be challenging as the racing is close here and there’s always the possibility of contact plus of course there’s the terrain which is hard on the cars – but it all makes for a great spectacle which is great.

“When I got in the car for the standing start for the final, the steering was a little bit off, so when I hit hyperdrive early on, it was a struggle to hold on to it - unfortunately this led to a bit of contact with Jamie which was not intentional at all. But from there on, the car was working really well, and I could do what I needed to do. And here we are as winners -- happy days!”

Molly Taylor and Johan Kristoffersson celebrate. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images

Jamie Chadwick, Veloce Racing driver, said: “Honestly I’ve just really enjoyed the weekend. We went into the weekend with a bit of a plan, we needed the track time, the car wasn’t where we needed it to be at the beginning and I think we lacked a bit of seat time so our pace wasn’t outright quickest so we just focused on our plan.

“This is very different to driving single-seaters and I’m constantly learning and I can’t really underestimate that but I think everyone is, it’s new for everyone. I’m really really enjoying the challenge and I think the coolest thing for me this weekend was I nearly had the chance to be racing wheel to wheel with the likes of Sebastien Loeb and Johan Kristoffersson. To ever have thought that was going to happen is crazy.

“I think Extreme E’s such a crazy crazy championship that to take P2 with the alternate strategy was great. A massive, massive thanks to the team, I’m so grateful we’ve managed to get through the weekend and get a podium.

“Over the next three months we will be pushing hard to train, and Greenland will present a new challenge. I want to be able to jump in anything and be quick.”

Stephane Sarrazin, Veloce Racing driver, said: “This weekend the plan was to really not make any mistakes. We’ve improved the set-up of the car run-by-run and we need milage, we need to learn the car, and the team do also. We are happy, it’s just amazing.”

“To improve during the weekend we had to look at the various lines and improve the car and in the end we found a really good line. This stage was really good as we found a different line to overtake.”

Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, JBXE driver said: “Overall performance has improved greatly session by session working with Kevin has been really good. It’s a shame to just make it to Turn 1 of course in the Final, but to end in P3, we are happy with that.

“The first contact at the start really hurt us, after that I felt the car was really slowing down, after a few hundred meters I heard a big noise and then it was almost impossible to drive but I tried to take it as far as possible which gave us P3 in the end.

“I would say we found a much better setting for how we want the car to perform. Kevin and I have quite similar driving styles, so we want the car to be quite similar in handling and that’s the way we’ve developed the car in each session, so I think it’s that work that made us feel comfortable in the end, and when you feel comfortable and you can rely on the car, that’s when you can push and be quick.

“I didn’t have any expectations coming into the event, I just knew we had to work really hard to be competitive and I think we have done that. For the past twelve days we have known we are going to race together, and the team has done a great job to make progress with the car. It was kind of a rough start for them in AlUla so coming here was almost like starting over so I am really happy to have helped them this weekend and, in the end, to get a podium which has been really good. Sometimes it’s about the few hundredths in the races to get a win or a podium and today was about getting the car as far as possible after a problem.

“We are all super happy to go home from this weekend with some trophies! Next stop is Greenland – I’ve no idea at the moment whether I will be driving in that race yet but I’m certainly ready for more races and I’m ready for a seat full time if the opportunity comes – hopefully I’ve proved myself this weekend and would be super happy to continue!”

“I’m so happy for us as a team to have won in Extreme E for the second time. Two out of two – wow!" exclaimed team founder and CEO Nico Rosberg. “It’s so difficult because no one really understands the cars properly, as you don’t get a chance to test them. So, you have to guess and figure things out -- as a team, we’re really trying to bring a Formula 1 approach to Extreme E here which is really helping us a team to perform. It’s been an amazing team effort, we just kept building it up through the weekend.

"And it’s so cool as well that in AlUla, it was Johan that very much did it at the start and Molly followed on, but today it’s Molly that made the magic in the final and then Johan brought it home -- such a brilliant dynamic which really underlines the topic of equality which is one of the things that this championship is based on. That’s fantastic to see.

“The race format here has been a big step forward from AlUla in terms of development for race excitement -- but it’s still early stages and there’s still a way to go. One needs to analyze again, and I think we keep on seeing more and more glimpses of such awesome motor racing and this will continue to evolve into a super spectacle the more we go on. Remember, nobody’s ever done this before, and you have to be open minded and accept that you are going to learn and make it more and more exciting each time.

“I love this whole championship and being in the role of team principal -- I’m still as competitive as hell even though I’m not actually driving.. Anyway, we have the two best drivers in the car who are doing a much better job than I could, and I couldn’t be happier!”

The Extreme E fraternity will return to the championship’s floating paddock and head north to Greenland for the Artic X Prix on August 28-29.