LONDON: Andretti United Extreme E on Sunday edged championship leaders Rosberg X Racing in Extreme E’s first-ever five-car final to win the Arctic X Prix in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.
After an opening round in AlUla, and then a battle on the beach in Lac Rose, Dakar, Senegal, the electric SUV (sport utility vehicle) racing series landed in Greenland for the country’s first motorsport event with the team founded by former Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg leading the standings.
But it was the popular Andretti United Extreme E pairing of Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings which claimed a victory over event-long adversaries Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor who fell at the final hurdle, blowing the championship wide open in the process.
Munnings said: “I have literally no words for it. At the start of the weekend in Qualifying 1 we thought we’ll just go with it and see but we never imagined we’d come out on top so it’s a really special feeling.
“Timmy is a really incredible team-mate, I learn so much from him, he’s such a good driver and obviously he always pulls it out of the bag, so it’s really cool to be working alongside him.
“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,” she added.
Rosberg X Racing still leads the inaugural Extreme E season’s standing with 93 points, while Lewis Hamilton’s X44 is second on 84 points, and Andretti United third on 76 ahead of the fourth race in Sardinia on Oct. 23 and 24.
Hansen said: “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.”
