Acciona Sainz leads opening Extreme E practice in Chile

Championship contenders Acciona Sainz got the final Extreme E weekend off to the best possible start by going quickest in practice for the Copper X Prix in Antofagasta, Chile.

The pairing of Mattias Ekstrom and Laia Sanz -- who sit second in the points, three adrift of Rosberg X Racing’s Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky -- set a combined four-lap time of 8m20.273s in the second session of the day to edge the championship leaders by 0.628s. It was a slender margin granted by a half-spin for Ahlin-Kottulinsky as she came into the driver change area.

X44 Vida Carbon Racing’s Fraser McConnell and Cristina Gutierrez were third quickest, 2.284s back from the pacesetters, with Carl Cox Motorsports (Lia Block and Timo Scheider) and Veloce Racing (Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor) rounding out the top five.

Scheider set the quickest overall single lap (1m37.874s), while also going quickest of everyone in the first sector. The remaining sector bests were split between Kevin Hansen, Ekstrom, and McConnell

GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing’s RJ Anderson and Amanda Sorensen went sixth quickest in the afternoon, ahead of JBXE’s Andreas Bakkerud and new signing Tamara Molinaro. They bested another team with a tweaked driver lineup for this round, NEOM McLaren, who finished eighth after a tricky day.

The team of Tanner Foust and Hedda Hosaas were fourth fastest in the morning, but ran into a problem with a battery sensor between races. The issue was fixed ahead of second practice, but Hosaas then came to a stop at Waypoint 4 on her first lap of the afternoon due to a throttle issue, but the team was able to rectify that and restart its run to put a time on the board.

It was a similar story for Abt Cupra, with the team’s afternoon run being halted after Adrien Tambay’s two laps due to a right rear puncture. They too restarted, but brought up the field, behind Andretti Altawkilat’s Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings.