The first ever Extreme H World Cup ended with a third place for Kristoffersson Motorsport. Ole Christian Veiby and Hedda Hosås grabbed the last podium place after a somewhat chaotic final.
“There were people and cars everywhere and very poor visibility”, summarizes Veiby.
After last weekend’s conclusion of the electric car series Extreme E, where KMS took a double victory in the first race, it was time for the premiere of the new series with hydrogen-powered cars during Thursday-Saturday.
A “time trial” was first on the schedule, where it was simply a matter of being the fastest around the track one car at the time. Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky of Team KMS came out as winners. A historic victory in the very first round of Extreme H.
“We had the speed from the start, but there were some other issues” says Åhlin-Kottulinsky.
No, the rest of the competition did not go as the experienced team from Värmland had hoped. Day 2 was about “head-to-head” where two cars at a time raced in parallel.
“We were not good enough there. It was that simple. The habit of driving this car meant that we misjudged the width and therefore took down several flags” says Kristoffersson.
This resulted in costly time penalties and a more difficult task ahead of Saturday’s “multi-car”, where four cars at a time lined up to race against each other.
And the problems continued. In the two qualifying rounds, both KMS teams suffered a puncture. Kristoffersson/Åhlin-Kottulinsky still managed to repair much of the damage in Q2, where they won their heat and were also fastest in the super sector, which gave them extra points.
“Mikaela’s super sector was fantastic, better than mine, so we took it home by a full 1.9 seconds”, says Johan.
“Yes, I was actually the fastest of all there, so we certainly had the speed”, Mikaela adds.
That also took Team KMS to a spot in the front row in the final, although from the outside and from that position it became crowded into the first turn.
“If you are not there first, cars from the inside come and push. That is how it is”, says Johan, who was third into the driver switch.
Mikaela had an opportunity to take the team to a podium place, even though victory was never within reach; Jameel Motorsport with Molly Taylor and Kevin Hansen were too far ahead.
“But then you need visibility to be able to drive. It was like a carpet on the window after they had watered the track”, says Mikaela, who drove straight ahead completely without visibility at one of the right-hand turns.
It ended with a sixth place for Team KMS.
The sister team EVEN were better off, despite a worse starting position from the back.
“But I knew from my experience in rallycross that it wasn’t that bad to start there, and I actually came out second behind Kevin”, says Ole Christian.
However, it got crowded in the next turn and after the driver change Hedda Hosås had a job to do to reach the podium. But in the chaos with poor visibility, penalties were to be handed out for flags taken down, which opened up for Veiby and Hosås.
“It was a completely crazy race. You have to drive fast, but also not make any mistakes, and we managed to get through it”, says Hosås, who was fourth at the finish, but where the team moved up to third place.
A strong result from Hosås, as new to KMS, and Veiby, as a total rookie in off-road driving.
“It has been very nice working with KMS and Ole Christian, but we have had a bit of bad luck with a puncture and other things”, says Hedda.
“I am completely new to this. To leave here with two podiums in three races is good”, says Ole Christian.
Team CEO Tommy Kristoffersson was able to sum up two weeks in sandy Saudi Arabia with mixed feelings.
“The whole team has worked well. All our drivers have had good speed. I would choose exactly that line-up with all four if I had the choice, but there have been a few minor hiccups along the way. In Extreme H we didn’t really get into the game. We certainly didn’t get anything for free”, says Tommy, who nevertheless sums up a good debut for Kristoffersson Motorsport in Extreme E and H.
“We have received confirmation that we can cope with this discipline as well.”
