Veloce Racing’s Hansen and Taylor take second Hydro X Prix win

Veloce Racing became the first repeat winners of the 2023 Extreme E season after prevailing in difficult conditions in the second part of the Hydro X Prix in Scotland.

Forecast heavy downpours stayed away for much of the day, but the arrival of rain in the hour before the redemption race and the final presented another challenge for the drivers as they contended with reduced grip and limited visibility.

The Veloce team of Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor made the best start in the final, resisting light contact from the Acciona Sainz entry to lead out of the first corner — a crucial move with the clean air of the lead helping them avoid the visibility issues that would plague the rest of the field.

Hansen controlled the race out in front early on, while behind him Acciona Sainz’s Mattias Ekstrom was under pressure from McLaren’s Tanner Foust, who found a way past around the outside going into Waypoint 24 at the end of the first lap.

Foust then began to hunt down Hansen, closing the gap to 1.2 seconds mid-way through the second lap. But as the McLaren car closed on the leaders, the knock-on effect of reduced visibility in the Veloce car’s wake became prevalent and the gap grew to 3.8s by the mid-race driver switch.

A hectic scramble to clear the McLaren’s windshield for Emma Gilmour’s stint in the car proved to be fruitless, with the Veloce machine — helmed by Taylor for the second half of the race — coming home unchallenged out in front.

Third place went to GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing’s RJ Anderson and Amanda Sorensen who recovered from a dismal start amid yet more visibility issues to claw their way back. They were helped by contact between Acciona Sainz and Rosberg X Racing (Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky), the latter of which spent most of the final without working wipers.

On the penultimate lap, the two came together, and with both cars’ views obscured by mud, a calamitous head-to-head collision followed as both attempted to rejoin the race. The incident ended RXR’s race on the spot, while Laia Sanz crashed the Acciona Sainz car on the final lap.

Hydro X Prix II Final