2025 Extreme H World Cup: Ahlin-Kottulinsky & Kristoffersson win time trial on Thursday

Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson from Team KMS won the time trial at the Extreme H World Cup 2025 in Qiddiya (Saudi Arabia). The duo set the fastest time in both the morning and afternoon sessions. However, Molly Taylor and Kevin Hansen from Jameel Motorsport were only marginally behind KMS in both time trials. Third place went to Catie Munnings and Andreas Bakkerud from Team Hansen in the morning and Hedda Hosas and Ole Christian Veiby from Team EVEN in the afternoon.

The Extreme H World Cup takes place in three parts: Firstly, there will be a time trial in which each driver of a team will contest one lap in the morning and one in the afternoon, including a driver switch. The times of the two sessions are added together and pool points are awarded based on the overall result. On the second day, the head-to-head round, the drivers of the eight cars compete against each other in a format inspired by Formula E qualifying in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, where pool points are also awarded. However, unlike the other sessions, no circuit is used here; instead, the drivers drive a different offroad drag track. On the third day, there will be multi-car racing on the circuit: initially in two groups of four, where pool points will again be awarded.

These determine the starting grid for the World Cup final, in which all eight Extreme H cars compete against each other on the circuit in the afternoon of day 3. The race winners can then call themselves Extreme H World Cup winners.

Morning session

Team JBX with Christine GZ and Tommi Hallman kicked off the morning session and set a very good time. However, GZ touched one of the track markings, resulting in the team receiving a five-second time penalty. In the end, they were classified in 6th place - 4.8 seconds slower than the best time! Carl Cox Motorsport with Klara Andersson and Timo Scheider were slower, but benefited from the penalty and took the lead. Then came the big favourites from KMS: Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Kristoffersson took the lead by almost four seconds.

Munnings and Bakkerud from Team Hansen were on an equal footing, however, and were even ahead at times. In the end, however, they were 1.06 seconds behind KMS. However, they lost second place to Taylor and Hansen, who closed the gap to KMS to 0.139 seconds. Zeroid Motorsport with Gray Leadbetter and Fraser McConnell struggled with technical problems, finishing almost ten seconds behind in 7th place.

Things went even worse for Team STARD with Amanda Sorenson and Patrick O'Donovan: a broken rear mgu caused the team to lose a lot of time, almost a whole minute off the fastest time. The Norwegian duo Hosas and Veiby from Team EVEN were the last to take to the track, finishing fourth 2.869 seconds behind.

KMS thus won ahead of Jameel Motorsport, Team Hansen, Team EVEN, Carl Cox Motorsport, JBX, Zeroid Motorsport and Team STARD.

Afternoon session

The second time trial was set to be just as close as the morning session. The start was in reverse order of the morning results, with Team STARD going first. The technical problems were resolved, but the team still only finished in 7th place. Zeroid Motorsport also had no technical problems this time, but Leadbetter drove too fast into the switch zone, so the team received a time penalty of three seconds - 5th place. JBX took over the top position shortly afterwards with a clean run.

Carl Cox Motorsport was next in line, but Andersson also hit one of the track markings, resulting in a five-second time penalty. It was of little use that the team set a new best time with a 1.7-second lead, with Andersson and Scheider finishing last. Team EVEN beat JBX's best time by 0.091 seconds and took the lead. Team Hansen was unable to live up to its role as favourites, with the third-placed team of the morning losing 0.884 seconds to the leaders after a driving error by Munnings and finishing fourth.

Jameel Motorsport now lined up: Taylor and Hansen put in a strong lap and took the lead by more than three seconds. KMS was now under pressure, but Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Kristoffersson were not to be deterred. They also won the afternoon session by 0.452 seconds ahead of Jameel Motorsport, Team EVEN, JBX, Zeroid, Hansen, STARD and Carl Cox.

In total, KMS took first place by 0.591 seconds ahead of Jameel Motorsport and thus secured ten pool points, while the Saudi team scored nine pool points. Hansen followed in third place, 5.793 seconds behind, which meant eight pool points. The following places were taken by Team EVEN (7), JBX (6), Carl Cox (5), Zeroid (4) and STARD (3). However, as Zeroid set the best time in the super sector, they were awarded two additional pool points, which pushed them ahead of JBX and Carl Cox.

The second day of the Extreme H World Cup is scheduled for Friday: That's when the head-to-head round takes place.