Veloce leads first practice of 2023 in Desert X Prix

While practice is not indicative of race pace, Veloce Racing enters the Extreme E season-opening Desert X Prix with some momentum after setting the best overall time across both Free Practices on Friday.

Veloce’s total time of 11:27.589 in the second practice, held three hours after the first ended, was faster than runner-up Andretti XE‘s time in the same session by over a second.

“The confidence and spirit within Veloce Racing is extremely high and we’re ready for the Desert X Prix double-header in NEOM,” said Veloce driver Kevin Hansen. “This is the best preparation I have had before an XE season, and the team pulled out all the stops with the testing programme in Dubai and with their efforts here in NEOM so far. The ingredients are in place so now we need to go out and execute the plan over the weekend.”

Defending champion X44 was penalised fifteen seconds during FP1 before being unable to start the second due to an issue with the car’s rear. They were eventually allowed to run two “make-up” laps with Cristina Gutiérrez and perform a driver switch. McLaren, who set the best time in FP1 ahead of Andretti, also did not complete FP2.

Carl Cox Motorsport, ahead of their series début, ranked ninth total with their best time coming in FP2.

Ten teams are entered for the 2023 season. Although XE Sports Group announced an entry last May, the team ultimately did not materialise.

Rosberg X Racing, who finished second in the 2022 championship, has won both editions of the Desert X Prix. They set the fourth best total time in practice.

Practice #1 results

Practice #2 results

Follow @TCFoffroad: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram