Penalties, RXR trouble shake up Copper X Prix

For the first time ever, Rosberg X Racing failed to reach an Extreme E Final, though of no fault of the drivers as a technical issue ended their day despite topping qualifying and winning Semi-Final #1. With the points leader out of the picture, X44 Vida Carbon Racing found new life in the championship battle as Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez scored their first win of the season.

“We were surprised to see that Rosberg X Racing weren’t competing in the Final, but we didn’t have a lot of time to think about it as we were racing straight away,” said Loeb.

X44, winner of Semi-Final #2, faced significant pressure from McLaren XE until the latter’s Emma Gilmour received two time penalties totalling fifteen seconds for knocking down waypoint flags. Although Chip Ganassi Racing was moved up to second in McLaren’s stead, they suffered the same fate for Sara Price missing a checkpoint, with the resulting five-second infraction knocking them off the podium and promoting ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team and ABT CUPRA XE up a spot.

The win is X44’s second after claiming the 2021 season-ending Jurassic X Prix. It also concludes a strong first round under the X44 Vida Carbon Racing name after the company became the team’s title sponsor weeks before the Copper X Prix.

“Today was amazing, we are so happy to have won the Copper X Prix and to still be in the fight for the championship,” commented Gutiérrez. “Rosberg X Racing are a really strong team so for them to not be able to drive in the Final was not good for them, but hopefully it is more interesting to have more than one team fighting for the championship in Uruguay.”

In moving up to third, ABT CUPRA scores their first podium since the 2021 Island X Prix while Klara Andersson notches a podium in her series début. Excluding the inaugural XE race, she is the second driver to record a podium in their maiden start after Timo Scheider finished runner-up at the Island X Prix #1 in July.

Andersson commented, “You only get one chance as a driver sometimes to show your pace, so of course I hope this has shown what I can do.”

With RXR failing to start the Final (which in turn promoted Ganassi into the race), their points lead drops from thirty-two to seventeen over X44.

Race results

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Driver #2
1	44	X44 Vida Carbon Racing	8:59.728	Sébastien Loeb	Cristina Gutiérrez
2	55	ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team	9:05.821	Carlos Sainz	Laia Sanz
3	125	ABT CUPRA XE	9:08.340	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Jutta Kleinschmidt
4	99	Chip Ganassi Racing	9:09.887*	Kyle LeDuc	Sara Price
5	58	McLaren XE	9:18.663*	Tanner Foust	Emma Gilmour

* – Received a penalty

Semi-Final #1

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Driver #2
1	6	Rosberg X Racing	9:04.370	Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky	Johan Kristoffersson
2	55	ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team	9:10.809	Laia Sanz	Carlos Sainz
3	23	Andretti United XE	9:21.161*	Catie Munnings	Timmy Hansen

Semi-Final #2

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Driver #2
1	44	X44 Vida Carbon Racing	9:02.840	Sébastien Loeb	Cristina Gutiérrez
2	125	ABT CUPRA XE	9:06.359	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Jutta Kleinschmidt
3	99	Chip Ganassi Racing	9:09.154	Kyle LeDuc	Sara Price

Crazy Race

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Driver #2
1	58	McLaren XE	9:12.588*	Tanner Foust	Emma Gilmour
2	22	JBXE	9:27.630*	Kevin Hansen	Hedda Hosås
3	42	XITE Energy Racing	9:30.062*	Timo Scheider	Tamara Molinaro
4	5	Veloce Racing	11:30.350	Lance Woolridge	Christine GZ