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

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Lap #1 Time	Lap #2 Time	Driver #2	Lap #1 Time	Lap #2 Time
1	58	NEOM McLaren XE	12:00.397	Tanner Foust	2:42.451	2:24.032	Emma Gilmour	2:40.719	2:33.520
2	23	Andretti ALTAWKILAT XE	12:01.478	Timmy Hansen	2:43.524	2:25.645	Catie Munnings	2:41.048	2:32.971
3	6	Rosberg X Racing	12:05.697	Johan Kristoffersson	2:39.000	2:23.641	Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky	2:51.465	2:33.284
4	5	Veloce Racing	12:19.528	Kevin Hansen	2:41.997	2:23.215	Molly Taylor	2:37.824	2:55.436
5	125	ABT CUPRA XE	12:25.843	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:38.290	2:21.183	Klara Andersson	2:46.572	2:58.182
6	8	Carl Cox Motorsport	12:29.977	Timo Scheider	2:43.717	2:25.028	Christine GZ	2:51.949	2:47.072
7	44	X44 Vida Carbon Racing	12:31.374*	Cristina Gutiérrez	2:45.015	2:24.032	Fraser McConnell	2:57.704	2:25.753
8	22	JBXE	12:33.370	Heikki Kovalainen	2:44.788	2:25.646	Hedda Hosås	2:53.370	2:46.384
9	99	GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing	12:35.862	RJ Anderson	3:05.034	2:23.641	Amanda Sorensen	2:49.539	2:36.649
10	55	ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team	12:52.528*	Mattias Ekström	3:36.352	2:18.611	Laia Sanz	2:37.498	2:30.435

* – Received a penalty

Practice #2 results

Finish	Number	Team	Total Time	Driver #1	Lap #1 Time	Lap #2 Time	Driver #2	Lap #1 Time	Lap #2 Time
1	5	Veloce Racing	11:27.589	Molly Taylor	2:34.420	2:26.999	Kevin Hansen	2:20.658	2:23.483
2	23	Andretti ALTAWKILAT Extreme E	11:29.867	Catie Munnings	2:36.482	2:26.569	Timmy Hansen	2:22.394	2:23.341
3	55	ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team	11:30.372	Laia Sanz	2:35.945	2:28.506	Mattias Ekström	2:21.467	2:22.967
4	6	Rosberg X Racing	11:31.885	Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky	2:33.643	2:27.644	Johan Kristoffersson	2:27.451	2:21.576
5	125	ABT CUPRA XE	11:40.273	Klara Andersson	2:43.687	2:32.865	Nasser Al-Attiyah	2:20.562	2:21.823
6	99	GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing	11:54.158	Amanda Sorensen	2:39.233	2:35.280	RJ Anderson	2:27.346	2:30.423
7	22	JBXE	11:56.093	Hedda Hosås	2:50.084	2:39.031	Heikki Kovalainen	2:22.031	2:23.752
8	8	Carl Cox Motorsport		Christine GZ	2:48.102	2:40.306	Timo Scheider	2:25.763	2:29.804
9	58	NEOM McLaren XE	DNF	Emma Gilmour	2:35.862	2:30.065	Tanner Foust	2:24.515	N/A
9	44	X44 Vida Carbon Racing	DNF	Cristina Gutiérrez	2:30.983	2:27.259	Fraser McConnell	N/A	N/A