Yahoo Autos Veloce dominates first Hydro X Prix Final as rivals hit trouble
E.ON NEXT Veloce Racing claimed its first win of the 2024 Extreme E season, dominating the first Final of the Hydro X Prix weekend as its rivals hit trouble in Scotland.
Molly Taylor began the four-lap main event on Saturday with a clean getaway, emerging from the first two turns in the lead. Behind her, Rosberg X Racing’s Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinky and Laia Sanz of Acciona Sainz came together, the contact resulting in right rear damage to the RXR machine, immediately taking it out of contention and opening the door for Andretti Altawkilat’s Timmy Hansen to get by.
Out in front, Sanz closed on Taylor during the remainder of the first lap, but the Veloce driver responded, dropping Sanz into Hansen’s clutches. From there, Hansen hit the back of Sanz twice, first at Waypoint 7, then again at Waypoint 22 – this time resulting in the dropping of a waypoint flag.
The pair survived both incidents with only superficial bodywork damage, but the collisions allowed Taylor to further extend her lead. She held a 2.137s advantage over Sanz when she came into the mid-race driver switch.
With Kevin Hansen now behind the wheel of the Veloce machine and Fraser McConnell taking over the Acciona Sainz car, the battle became closer, with McConnell reducing the gap to just 1.742s at the end of the third lap.
Hansen quickly responded with session-best times in the first two sectors of the final lap, and although McConnell was once again able to close in – ultimately finishing the race 1.435s adrift – he couldn’t overhaul the younger Hansen brother.
Catie Munnings brought the Andretti entry home in third, while RXR was classified third after initially getting going again, but retiring in the Switch Zone before Johan Kristoffersson could take over from Ahlin-Kottulinsky.
In the redemption race, Legacy Motor Club’s Patrick O’Donovan and Gray Leadbetter won from SUN Minimeal’s Timo Scheider and Klara Andersson as both teams took their best results in Extreme E so far.
Scheider gave SUN Minimeal an early lead, but contact with JBXE’s Amanda Sorensen at the second waypoint on lap one sent Scheider into the track-lining hay bales, opening the door for O’Donovan to close in.
After getting by Scheider, then taking a look up the inside of Sorensen going into Waypoint 17, O’Donovan finally moved to the fore at Waypoint 20 towards the end of the first lap, and it was a position they would not relinquish, with Leadbetter bringing the car home 3.533s ahead of Andersson in the SUN Minimeal following the mid-race driver swap.
JBXE was classified third, albeit just under 1m27s back after contact between Sorensen and Scheider forced them to briefly stop. NEOM McLaren meanwhile finished bottom of the pile after a freak incident where the safety cut-off on the car – being driven by Mattias Ekstrom – was struck by a rock, which ended the team’s race before the second waypoint.
HYDRO X PRIX I REDEMPTION RACE RESULTS
Earlier in the day, Veloce got its event off to the best possible start after winning both its qualifying heats – those wins coming after setting the pace in practice on Friday.
It wasn’t totally straightforward, though. The team was the victim of heavy contact from SUN Minimeal at the start of Q1, race one, and while SUN went onto win the race, it was hit with a 10s penalty for the contact, dropping it to third in the classification.
That wasn’t the only mark on that team’s start to the day, with Andersson suffering a dramatic roll after crossing the finish line. While the car looked totally destroyed, it was repaired in time for Q2, where the team took second in Q2, race two, behind RXR – who had a troublesome Q1 race with a downed flag and a spin – and ahead of Andretti which won the other Q1 heat.
Veloce’s win means that it keeps its record of being the only team to finish on the podium in every round so far this season, while it is also its second consecutive victory on Scottish soil after its triumph in the second Final of last year’s Hydro X Prix – a race in which Andretti finished second.
As well as being its second consecutive podium in Scotland, third place for Andretti was both its second podium on the bounce this season.
With the round win, a brace of heat wins, and the fastest super sector time, Veloce takes a maximum score of 29 points from Saturday, moving it to the championship lead on 60 points. RXR’s tricky day drops it from first to third in the points, with Acciona Sainz moving up to second, while Andretti, McLaren, Legacy M.C., SUN Minimeal, and JBXE all maintain their positions.
Championship standings
1. E.ON NEXT Veloce Racing 60 points
2. ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team 57 points
3. Rosberg X Racing 54 points
4. Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E 47 points
5. NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team 34 points
6. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB 28 points
7. SUN Minimeal Team 18 points
8. JBXE 16 points
