Being the very first season ever, every location of the Extreme E championship series is a first and for the third round, the location in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland certainly presented an entirely different environment for the Arctic X Prix.
After consecutive overall wins by the Rosberg X Racing team in Saudi Arabia (Desert X Prix) and Senegal (Ocean X Prix), this third round was won by Andretti United Extreme E drivers Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings.
In Extreme E’s first-ever 5-car final, British driver Munnings took the lead early on, until being passed by X44’s Sebastien Loeb, the Frenchman leading for the rest of the 8.6-km lap around a lake until the Switch Zone, while Munnings dropped behind Rosberg X Racing’s Molly Taylor.
The top three ran close into the Switch Zone area, the Andretti United car – the same all-electric ODYSSEY 21 E-SUV as everyone else – having re-taken second position, but X44’s challenge would be thwarted by a right-rear puncture, the wheel needing to be changed in the Switch Zone while Cristina Gutierrez climbed aboard the car.
Andretti United’s Hansen was first to leave the Switch Zone for the second lap, closely chased by RXR’s Johan Kristoffersson, the pair running side-by-side and spectacularly jumping high together over sections of the course, until the RXR car was slowed by technical issues from a jump landing and the Andretti United team ran free to claim its first victory.
Having won the Crazy Race earlier in the day, the JBXE team flew in the final, Kevin Hansen completing the first lap before handing the controls to Swedish compatriot Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and, fighting back from difficulties during qualifying, the pair finished second.
A solid run for ACCIONA | Sainz XE duo Carlos Sainz and Laia Sanz was rewarded with a podium finish in third, with X44 classified fourth and RXR fifth. The SEGI TV CHIP GANASSI RACING and Xite Energy Racing teams battled in the Crazy Race but didn’t make it through to the final.
“It feels awesome! It’s been a great afternoon and day! We’ve both had great races today and we had to work really hard for it. Catie did an amazing job both times. We both were involved in very close battles with the Rosberg X Racing car both times, it just feels incredible to be here,” said Timmy Hansen of Andretti United Extreme E.
“I loved the challenge of this course. I think it was really different to what we’ve seen before and a new challenge for the car as well. I think what was interesting was that it literally changed every time you saw it. Every car would chuck out massive rocks and so your line might not be there, so it was a very spontaneous style of driving and I also found it very hard to judge what the correct speed was, you have to think a lot more especially if you’re the first driver,” added Munnings.
The unforgiving Arctic X Prix course, combined with the series’ revised sporting format produced some of the most exciting racing yet with the 18 world-class drivers battling not only themselves, but the conditions and various track hazards en route to the finish line.
Adding an extra element of excitement to proceedings was the returning Super Sector, with the fastest driver over the course of the weekend earning themselves 5 extra points for the team.
Drawing attention to the mission of creating greater environmental awareness, JBXE’s Ahlin-Kottulinsky said: ”We are all living in this world and we all want to make a great future, so I think closing your eyes to what’s happening is not the right way. We all have to be open to see what is happening to the world and that is why Extreme E is trying new technologies and new ways to improve, we are all in this together and we all have to do this right. I think the fact that it is raining here in Greenland is as unusual as it would be in the desert and seeing how much rain we actually had this weekend is devastating so you can’t just close your eyes to it.”
From Greenland, the series will have its next round in Sardinia, Italy, on October 23/24. The move to Sardinia for the Island X Prix follows the decision to postpone its originally planned events in Brazil and Argentina due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation in South America.
“Extreme E was built around the ethos of racing electric vehicles in remote environments in an effort to raise awareness for climate change issues and showcase the performance and benefits of low carbon vehicles. However, this crisis is not a problem which only affects remote locations. It is becoming increasingly noticeable closer to home, across North America, and here across Europe, with rising temperatures, heatwaves and wildfires, which currently rage in Sardinia itself, being some of the latest devastating examples,” said Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme E.
Since the start of the series, the vehicles, participants and scientific facility for research work at each location have travelled on a specially refurbished cargo ship called the St. Helena. Efficiency is a major element of the ship with the engines running on low sulphur marine diesel and the propellers having reduced friction. 4,000 new low emission LED lights replace the old power intensive lighting, and there are new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
