Rosberg X Racing wins Desert X-Prix semi final

Rosberg X Racing wins the first ever Extreme E race with victory in the Desert X-Prix semi-final.

Johan Kristoffersson started the race for the team and got the best get away from the three cars on the grid.

It as a dramatic start to the race as it seemed almost every meter a different team managed to edge ahead, but a battle between X44’s Sebastien Loeb and Acciona’s Carlos Sainz allowed Kristoffersson to break away.

Once ahead, Kristoffersson had the advantage of a clear track ahead of him, while Loeb and Sainz were forced to deal with a spray of sand from their competitors.

Kristoffersson gradually built the gap to the rest of the field before handing the car over to Molly Taylor.

A clean driver swap meant XRX maintained the advantage heading out of the Switch Zone.

The second lap – in which each team ran their female driver – more resembled a traditional rally with the field spread out by roughly half a minute.

Taylor extended the gap to X44’s Cristina Gutierrez to finish 28.910s ahead.

After a tight battle at the start, Loeb left Sainz behind and held an advantage of roughly 17s heading into the Switch Zone. A problem free run for Gutierrez and a relatively slow swap for Sainz and Laia Sanz meant she finished almost 38s ahead of the Acciona team.

Rosberg X Racing and X44 both go through to the final, where they will be joined by the winner of the crazy race.

Image courtesy of Extreme E