Driver quotes after Enel X Island X Prix qualifying 23.10.2021: Driver quotes Carlos Sainz Snr., ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team, said: “I have a bittersweet feeling at the moment. Qualifying 1 was pretty good because we finished second, but in Qualifying 2 we ran into several technical issues that dragged us back

Driver quotes





Carlos Sainz Snr., ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team, said: “I have a bittersweet feeling at the moment. Qualifying 1 was pretty good because we finished second, but in Qualifying 2 we ran into several technical issues that dragged us back and that cost us a lot of time. In the end, we qualified in fourth place. Tomorrow we will race in the Semi-Final 2 against strong competition, but we will give our best, as we always do.”




Laia Sanz, ACCIONA | Sainz XE Team, said: “We finished fourth in Qualifying. We were second in Qualifying 1 and we were pretty satisfied with that because both myself and Carlos had a really good pace. It is a shame what happened in the afternoon. It is a bittersweet feeling because we couldn’t hold on to the pace that we wanted due to an issue in the steering system.


This cost us some time, but we are still optimistic going into Sunday because we know our pace is there. We want to leave this X Prix with a good result. Hopefully, we will do a good semi-final and we will qualify for the final.”

Sébastien Loeb, X44, said: “We achieved what we wanted to today which was to be the fastest team so I’m very happy with the result. It’s the fourth race now that we have come first in qualifying - which is great - but we know that the hardest challenge comes with the semi-final and final so we will continue to focus and do what we can to beat the other teams. At the moment the track is quite dry and can have a lot of dust so we need to make sure we have the best start possible tomorrow.”




Cristina Gutiérrez, X44, said: “Today was a difficult day because the track is not an easy one. It can be narrow and tricky in places so it was really important to take a good line, but ultimately Seb and I came first in both rounds of qualifying so of course we’re happy with the result. Tomorrow we need to take on Andretti United and Chip Ganassi Racing in the semi-final so it will be a tough challenge but we’re feeling confident.”




Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing, said: “The circuit is certainly demanding here in Sardinia with many technical challenges and of course, the first water splash of the season so it’s been an interesting start to the weekend for myself and Molly. I think we can take a lot of positives from qualifying today and I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow, especially now we are even more familiar with the racing lines.”




Molly Taylor, Rosberg X Racing driver, said: “We anticipated this would be a challenging course and we were correct. Despite having a roll in the first session, I’m pleased we didn’t lose too much time and I really then focussed on Round 2, making sure I could give the team the best result possible. The field is looking very close so I think tomorrow will provide an exciting race.”




Mattias Ekström, ABT CUPRA XE, said: “While the first run today was trouble-free I had a little 360 in the second qualifying which I hope everyone liked to watch. That put us into the second semifinal where the start will be crucial as track position will be key considering all the dust. In general, the track is pretty cool. It’s very bumpy, very rough and fast.”



Jutta Kleinschmidt, ABT CUPRA XE, said: “It was a day with ups and downs for us. Finally, we ended up in third position which leaves everything on the table for tomorrow. The track is very demanding and provides a lot of places to make mistakes so let’s make only very few of them. Tomorrow is a completely different day when we are not going for the fastest time but racing against each other. That’s going to be very exciting.”







Sara Price, SEGI TV Chip Ganassi Racing, said: “Today was a wild one for us to say the least. This morning was a little wild in the car. I got a little out of sorts and into a rock in the first qualifying that resulted in some damage to the left rear suspension.


The guys got everything fixed up and our second round laps were good. We pulled off second fast in that round, which put us fifth overall for qualifying. It's a really good spot for us. We finally got some more track time in, and we’re able to work some bugs out. So hopefully tomorrow goes good.”




Kyle LeDuc, SEGI TV Chip Ganassi Racing, said: “Round one did not go very well for us, but round two went really well. Me and Sara put two good lap together for a good overall time. I ran first and Sara brought the car home for the final lap. We had a couple of mistakes, but bounced back for a solid day. We’re all happy with how we finished the day, and are looking forward to tomorrow.”




Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E, said: “Qualifying 1 didn’t go to plan - just over 100m into the lap, the power steering went so I lost a lot of time. I have an old shoulder injury from 2016 and I dislocated my right shoulder, but I managed to push on.


I was happy to get the car back to Catie [Munnings], but I was obviously disappointed to lose time. I got some painkillers from the medical team afterwards and everything felt better in Qualifying 2. The adrenaline kicks in anyway! Today was about managing the car, I’m sure some people at home probably ask why do we risk it but honestly it’s hard to take it steady in these cars - we are racing drivers after all!”




Catie Munnings, Andretti United Extreme E, said: “The track is here is tough, with so many different routes you can take which we’ve seen a lot today, but generally we’re happy with our pace despite some of the issues we had.


In any case, some of the teams who didn’t do well in Qualifying 1 didn’t fare so well in the second qualifying, which is where we did much better and managed to get back up the leaderboard. Timmy and I have got some prep to do tonight so that we’re ready to battle tomorrow in the semis.”




Stéphane Sarrazin, Veloce Racing, said: “Qualifying 1 was very good, we ended up P3 which is our best performance in quali since the start of the season. The car was really good and the team did a great job, Emma was really fast also.

Unfortunately, during the second qualifying session I went into the second sector and one part of the power steering was broken so I had to stop on the course. It was a shame we weren’t able to continue but we still showed good pace again.”




Emma Gilmour, Veloce Racing, said: “It was a disappointing end to our day after such a great start. We were all really happy with our pace this morning, Stéphane and I were driving well together and improving the car. We were in a strong position so when the car just broke in Q2 it was so disappointing for the team.


Obviously now we end up in the crazy race which means we have one shot at getting through to the final. I’m going to be first in the car so it’s going to be a really important start tomorrow morning, we need to pick the right line and attack hard so bring it on!”




To learn more about Extreme E, visit - www.Extreme-E.com




Julia Fry- photos ExtremeE