Extreme E News

2025 Extreme H World Cup: Sorensen & O'Donovan decide Friday's duels in their favour

Tobias Wirtz

Tobias Wirtz

Jordan Gullick / Extreme E

Amanda Sorensen and Patrick O'Donovan from the Austrian team STARD have won the second day of the Extreme H World Cup. After finishing 8th on Thursday, the duo beat the previously unbeaten Jameel Motorsport team of Molly Taylor and Kevin Hansen. Carl Cox Motorsport and JBX took the following places. Team KMS with Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson, who had won the time trial the day before, finished in last place.

The Extreme H World Cup takes place in three parts: Firstly, there is a time trial, in which each driver of a team completes one lap in the morning and one in the afternoon, including a driver change. 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 preliminary round, semi-final and final, where pool points are also awarded. However, unlike the other sessions, there is no circuit used here; instead, the drivers drive a different parallel course.

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 grand finale, 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.

The head-to-head round consisted of a preliminary round with 16 duels: Each team competed four times, racing against four different opponents, with positions being drawn by lot. Here, the drivers had to take turns: one driver drove the first and third duel of the team, the other the second and fourth. Five points were awarded to the winning team in a duel, the losing team received three points if they stayed within 105 per cent of the winning time, otherwise only two points were awarded.

The track consisted of a long straight with a chicane with two chevrons and two jumps, and the drivers needed just over 20 seconds to complete the course. As a result, the 105 per cent mark corresponded to just over a second in most duels. As touching a chevron in the chicane resulted in five penalty seconds, this was equivalent to two points if the other car got through the chicane without making contact.

Preliminary round

Molly Taylor and Kevin Hansen from Jameel Motorsport won all four of their duels and therefore progressed to the semi-finals with the maximum 20 points. They were followed by Team STARD with 18 points, Carl Cox Motorsport with 16 points and JBX with 15 points. Team Hansen, who were tied on points, were eliminated due to the slower combined best times set by the drivers in the preliminary round. Also out were Zeroid Motorsport, Team EVEN (13 points each) and KMS (11 points), who were penalised three times in four duels for touching the chevrons in the chicane. A bitter setback after first place in the time trial on Thursday.

Semi-final 1: Carl Cox Motorsport vs. Jameel Motorsport

Timo Scheider and Kevin Hansen faced each other in the first semi-final. Both drivers were on equal terms up to the chicane, but Hansen got round the chevrons better and decided the duel in his favour by 0.392 seconds. Jameel Motorsport thus kept the clean sheet: five duels, five victories.

Semi-final 2: JBX vs. Team STARD

The second semi-final was contested by Christine GZ and Patrick O'Donovan. The JBX driver got off to a better start, but then lost a lot of time to O'Donovan in the chicane. In addition, she touched the chevron, which earned her a time penalty of five seconds. However, this did not matter as O'Donovan won the race by 0.888 seconds.

Final: Jameel Motorsport vs. Team STARD

The two teams with the best points from the preliminary round faced each other in the final. As the male driver of both teams had contested the semi-final, this time the two female drivers had to drive. Molly Taylor therefore faced Amanda Sorensen. Sorensen had the better start and led by half a car length going into the chicane. Taylor got round the chevrons better here and was only 0.003 seconds behind, but lost important hundredths of a second on the following jump. In the end, Sorensen won by 0.082 seconds - victory for Team STARD, who had only finished last in the time trial the day before after technical problems! Jameel Motorsport, on the other hand, suffered its first and only defeat after five duel victories in a row.

Thanks to ten pool points, Team STARD improved to 6th place with a total of 13 points, while Jameel Motorsport took the lead with two bonus points due to the fastest combined time of driver and driver and now had 20 points. The two losing teams in the semi-final, Carl Cox Motorsport and JBX were also now on 13 pool points, as was KMS. This put these four teams just one point behind Hansen Motorsport, who took second place in the overall standings with 14 pool points. At the back of the field: Zeroid Motorsport and Team EVEN, tied on 11 points.

However, that doesn't mean anything yet: on Saturday morning, a maximum of 22 pool points per team can still be scored in the two multi-car races with four cars each. The starting grid for the final race, in which all eight Pioneer 25 cars will be on the grid, will then be determined on the basis of this points.

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