Extreme E has completed its debut day in Saudi Arabia. After the initial Qualifying 1, Qualifying 2 would decide who gets the first points being handed out to teams and also set us up for Sunday’s wheel to wheel racing.
How Are Extreme E Saturday Points Awarded?
The Saturday leg of Extreme E racing takes place across two parts; Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2. Driving order is decided by a lottery and the teams will drive a total of 4 laps across the two sessions. The fastest combined time is awarded first and so on. Here’s the Championship points up for grabs on Saturday.
| Position | Points |
| 1 | 12 |
| 2 | 11 |
| 3 | 10 |
| 4 | 9 |
| 5 | 8 |
| 6 | 7 |
| 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 5 |
| 9 | 4 |
Qualifying 2: How It Played Out
Rosberg vs Hamilton Part Deux: A Conspiracy Theorist’s Dream
Extreme E is an enjoyable bit of motorsport action to enjoy and very welcome in a world of limited new entertainment thanks to the pandemic. As you might expect, Extreme E is having some teething problems and one of those problems is the heavy editing which is fairly obvious for a live stream.
Is Extreme E Really Live?
No. There is a definite delay. I spotted this earlier in Q1 when a crash and rolled car had disappeared within moments for the next racer’s lap. I would imagine this is down to the sport being new and TV networks only giving Extreme E one-hour slots to fit in as much entertainment as possible. The producers can’t afford to have long delays for car recovery and it looks like heavy editing of a “live” event is the solution.
Rosberg X Racing Punished For Speeding
During Q2 we inexplicably joined Rosberg X Racing’s lap with Taylor done and dusted and well into Kristoffersson’s lap. There was some feed breakup during a segment before and after the teams time to race which may have meant some footage was missing. But again, it’s a sign of the “not so live” feed that we’re all watching.
Regardless, they nailed their lap in terms of time, even if most of it happened off screen. Sitting in first place and looking at being awarded maximum points for Saturday, the race director’s voice was then heard saying they had received a penalty. It’s another penalty for speeding in the Switch Zone, effectively the pit lane. Get your tinfoil hat out.
Switch Zone speeding is awarded a 5 second penalty for every 1kmph over the 30kmph limit the car goes. In a heated battle with Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team, named after the reigning F1 Champions racing number, Nico Rosberg’s team were punished for driving 44kmph in the Switch Zone.
It’s all a coincidence of course, but uncanny that the pairing of Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor would lose first place because of that exact speed.
Button Failure
The team of Jenson Button and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky had a fairly forgettable Qualifying 1 but Qualifying 2 will be more memorable for the wrong reasons. Ahlin-Kottulinsky put in a solid first lap, but as she approached the Switch Zone and hit the “pit limiter” button, it failed. This button limits the speed of the Extreme E SUVs to 30kmph so they don’t break the Switch Zone speed limit and get a hefty penalty.
As a result, the Button owned JBXE Team received a massive penalty of nearly three minutes.
Extreme E Day 1 Results
In what turned out to be the battle of Lewis Hamilton’s team against Nico Rosberg’s team, rekindling an old rivalry, it was Hamilton’s X44 team which won out with a total time of 21 minutes and 55 seconds. In second is the Spanish team owned by Carlos Sainz Senior and Junior who were still a massive 41 seconds behind the leaders. A hefty penalty meant Rosberg X Racing didn’t even grab second spot.
| Position | Drivers | Team | Points |
| 1 | Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez | X44 | 12 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz and Laia Sanz | Acciona | Sainz XE | 11 |
| 3 | Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor | Rosberg X Racing | 10 |
| 4 | Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings | Andretti United | 9 |
| 5 | Oliver Bennett and Christine Giampaoli Zonca | Hispano Suiza Xite Energy | 8 |
| 6 | Jenson Button and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky | JBXE | 7 |
| 7 | Kyle Leduc and Sara Price | Segi TV Chip Ganassi Racing | 6 |
| 8 | Mattias Ekstrom and Claudia Hurgten | ABT Cupra XE | 5 |
| 9 | Stephane Sarrazin and Jamie Chadwick | Veloce Racing | 4 |
Going into Sunday’s race schedule, there’s still plenty to fight for. The teams of X44, Sainz XE and Rosberg X Racing go straight into the semi-final race.
Andretti United, the Hispano team and JBXE will face off in the so-called “Crazy Race”, the winner of which goes joins first and second from the semi-final in the final race. The final three teams from the list above will take part in a shootout race for the final points of the weekend.
It’s all back on air tomorrow, again bright and early, so get onto YouTube, set your alarms and get ready. Here’s where you can watch tomorrow’s Extreme E action where the teams abandon time trials and start driving wheel to wheel.
