Extreme E's inaugural champions to be crowned at Season Finale

This weekend marks the final race of Extreme E’s first season and the Championship decider as the nine teams go head-to-head in their all-electric ODYSSEY 21s.

Although RXR has led the standings throughout and currently tops the table on 129 points, Lewis Hamilton’s X44 on 113 points could take Championship victory this weekend. Just behind the top two and in close contention are Andretti United Extreme E (93 points) and Jenson Button’s JBXE (92 points) as they fight to round out the top three spots.

Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme E, said: “Our Dorset race is shaping up to be a thrilling finale and I can’t wait to see the teams battling it out on the course for victory at the concluding race of our first season.

“There has been some epic action on some exciting courses, and the route for Dorset will be no different. With a high chance of rain expected, the drivers are going to face the new challenge of a wet and muddy course, which could really spice things up in the Championship battle.

“More importantly, though, throughout our first year we have raised awareness of the climate crisis facing us all. Our presence in Dorset demonstrates that environmental issues are close to home, and we will be sure to leave a positive impact on the Jurassic coast.”

Challenging courses

The final race will take place at the British Ministry of Defence Base at Bovington in Dorset and as Extreme E closes out Season 1, the Jurassic X Prix will be held on a course that once again provides a completely new set of challenges. A mixed surface of clay, sand, gravel, and mud dominates the course in Dorset making grip, or the lack of it, a key feature for the first time this season. The likelihood of rain only adds to that challenge.

A fast downhill start will allow for multiple cars running side by side, but the wide-open space soon becomes a bottleneck and narrows down to single car width along the tree-lined course, bringing the drivers towards the course’s most striking feature - the 5.4-metre-high 23-degree ‘Knife Edge’ slope.

Enno Straten, Head of Strategy, Analytics & Marketing Replacement Tires EMEA at Continental said: “The final race of the Extreme E season once again presents teams and equipment with unprecedented challenges. We are looking forward to an exciting last race of Season 1, and are already counting down the days to competing again together in Saudi Arabia next February for the Season 2 opener.”

The Sporting Format

The Jurassic X Prix continues to follow the same format as the previous two races, with qualifying taking place on Saturday 18 December. There will be one session in the morning and one in the afternoon with each team completing the course with a Driver Switch incorporated. The times recorded across the morning session will equate to classification points meaning first place receives nine points, second place eight, third place seven and so on. The same then happens in the afternoon with classification points awarded on the same scale.

The combined total of these classification points provides the intermediate standings, and the remaining races will take place as follows:

• The teams will be listed 1st to 9th place based on the total combined points of each team’s two Qualifying runs. 
• Teams placed in first, fifth and sixth progress to Semi-Final 1, where the top two finishers claim spots in the Jurassic X Prix Final. 
• Second, third and fourth from Qualifying go through to Semi-Final 2, where again the top two progress to the Jurassic X Prix Final. 
• The bottom three teams (7th, 8th and 9th) head to the Crazy Race, with the winner reaching the Jurassic X Prix Final.
• The Jurassic X Prix Final features five cars. 

The ‘Continental Traction Challenge’ was won by Sébastien Loeb at the Enel X Island X Prix, claiming an extra five points for the X44 team. No doubt teams and drivers will be striving for these extra points in Dorset.

The nine teams and 18 drivers for the Jurassic X Prix are as follows:

• ABT CUPRA XE - #125 – Mattias Ekström / Jutta Kleinschmidt 
• ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team - #55 – Carlos Sainz Snr. / Laia Sanz 
• Andretti United Extreme E - #23 – Timmy Hansen / Catie Munnings
• SEGI TV Chip Ganassi Racing - #99 – Kyle LeDuc / Sara Price
• XITE ENERGY RACING powered by myenergi - #42 – Oliver Bennett / Christine GZ
• JBXE - #22 – Kevin Hansen / Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky
• Rosberg X Racing - #6 – Johan Kristoffersson / Molly Taylor
• Veloce Racing - #5 – Lance Woolridge / Jamie Chadwick
• X44 - #44 – Sébastien Loeb / Cristina Gutiérrez 

GridPlay

The GridPlay vote, which puts fans in the driving seat, will open at 0900 GMT on Wednesday 15 December and close at 1700 GMT on Saturday 18 December.

Why Dorset?

Extreme E’s decision to race in Dorset marks a poignant shift from the Championship’s mission to race in remote, far-away places to highlight the effects of climate change.

More and more, the climate issues being discussed are starting to occur closer to home in the UK. The off-road electric series is racing in Dorset to raise awareness of biodiversity loss by supporting The National Trust for this rounds Legacy Programme.

Legacy Programme – restoring biodiversity

Extreme E is partnering with the National Trust in an effort to improve biodiversity, which is critical for human existence, economic prosperity and a good quality of life, and sadly declining at a faster rate than at any time in human history, particularly in the UK.

The project itself centres around beavers that are nature’s water engineers. In 2022, The National Trust, with the support of Extreme E, hope to reintroduce three pairs of free-living beavers to Purbeck, Dorset, from Scotland for the first time in over 400 years.

Once introduced they will open hundreds of hectares of wetlands that have been in ecological decline for decades, restoring freshwater fen and pool habitats for the local wildlife. Soon the beavers will spread beyond Studland and their benefits will spread with them. As they naturalise the watercourses that have been canalised over the centuries they will improve water quality and carbon storage while reducing flood risk.

In addition to releasing the beavers, Extreme E will be working alongside the National Trust to install protective measures to ensure the beavers don’t negatively impact local people and businesses and carry out engagement programmes to educate the public.

Where to Watch

Shakedown and qualifications will be aired through Extreme E’s official website – www.extreme-e.com and social channels (@extremeelive on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Twitch).

The Finals will be shown in more than 200 countries by 85 broadcasters including ITV, Sky Sports, BBC digital channels and BT Sport in the UK,  FOX Sports in the USA, Prosieben MAXX in Germany, Mediaset in Italy as well as Eurosport across most European Markets.

A full list of broadcasters can be found here.

All times GMT 

Friday 17 December

1900 – 1930 GMT   Shakedown airs on website and social channels

Saturday 18 December

1000 – 1200 GMT Qualifying  Round 1

1300 – 1500 GMT  Qualifying  Round 2

Sunday 19 December

1000 – 1130 GMT Semi Finals

1200 – 1400 GMT  Final

Your Carbon Footprint

One of the aims of Extreme E is to inspire action. The series is making every attempt to keep its footprint low, and that mantra is something the Championship encourages everyone to do too via the Extreme E Count Us In Challenge.

It’s as simple as visiting the website, taking a step to reduce carbon emissions for example using public transport, eating local, even buying an electric vehicle, and it’s these steps that add up to a big difference.

Not only do they reduce individuals carbon footprint, which collectively makes a change, but they also encourage governments, cities and businesses to do the same and accelerate progress on climate action.

The team at the top of the leaderboard that has the most steps taken - currently X44 - will receive the Sustainability Award at the end of the season.