Women stand top of the podium in the Final 2 Rounds of E-Xplorer and Extreme E Rounds 7 and 8 in Sardinia – with plenty of race excitement to determine the overall winners. Combining shared principles of sustainability of racing, both Championships showcased the skills and abilities of 18 female rider’s and driver’s alongside their male counterparts within 9 Teams apiece.
In stark contrast to traditional formats of racing, whereby qualifying defines line-up of main race, E-Xplorer provides rider’s a track to race within Qualifying Heat sessions, which determines who goes through to quarter-final, semi-final, and grand-final.
In just second Round entry in the all-electric bike Series, Italian WMX 6x Champion Kiara Fontanesi completed double Round wins with Gravity team rider, Camille Chapeliere. Enjoying the change in format from competing in WMX Championship, Kiara complimented the talent of Chapeliere, producing time winning results.
Feeling the competitive spirit from Gravity rider’s, Japan’s MIE Team riders: Sandra Gomez and Jorge Zaragoza battled to hold the lead in the Championship, taking P2 in the Final Rounds, and securing enough points to take overall victory. The win will be real boost for the Hard/Extreme Enduro rider – Gomez – who pits her skills in the most challenging races – from Red Bull Romaniacs, to Erzberg, to The Dakar Rally.
Extreme E Rounds 7 and 8 returned to the sands of Sardinia, doubling the committment of the Series Legacy programmes of raising awareness on the effects of climate change on the environment. The previous Rounds 5 and 6 Island X Prix highlighted the importance of re-establishing bee colonies which have been severely disrupted by fires, followed by this weekend’s dedicated pitch on the amazing work of fire-fighters whose use of new technology raises early alarms on outbreaks of fire.
Leading the 2023 Extreme E Championship table, Acciona Sainz XE Team were in full-send mode racing Round 7 on Saturday, which proved a mighty battle against equally competitive line-up of Teams. Laia Sanz and team-driver Mattias Ekstrom claimed top honours, consolidating their points advantage heading into Round 8, the next day.
With anything can happen, uppermost in minds, McLaren driver Emma Gilmour did not expect such turn of events, when literally her car rolled, many times over on FP1, landing the NZ’der in hospital for checks, before being released to watch on the side-lines for Sunday’s racing.
It was all-out battle-of-the-Teams in Round 8, with plenty on the line, most importantly claiming points with only 2 Rounds remaining in December. Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Vida Carbon Racing Team of Cristina Gutierrez and Fraser McConnell kept it all together, taking Final Race win over Rosberg Racing, who now sit 3 points shy of Championship leader’s Acciona Sainz XE.
For sure, the final 2 Rounds in Chile on December 2 -3 will provide much anticipation on who will take the 3rd Series Title, which all-in-all consolidates Extreme E as a Championship of unprecedented proportions.
Header photo: E-Xplorer Round winners Kiara Fontanesi and Camille Chapeliere. Image: E-Xplorer.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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