The hydrogen era is off to a good start for Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor. The inaugural Extreme H World Cup took place in Qiddiya, where Jameel Motorsport defended their home turf by winning the Final.

After winning the Redemption Race at the Extreme E Final Lap a week prior, Hansen and Taylor enjoyed a strong two days in the Extreme H opener. Kristoffersson Motorsport initially looked like they would continue their winning ways from the electric period when Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Johan Kristoffersson edged out Jameel in Time Trials.

However, the KMS team’s luck started to run out once the actual racing began. Åhlin-Kottulinsky was bounced by Tommi Hallman followed by Amanda Sorensen in their Head-to-Head races, while Kristoffersson beat Catie Munnings but lost to Fraser McConnell. This left KMS at the bottom of the leaderboard, while Sorensen also beat Hedda Hosås followed by Taylor in the Final. Still, Jameel ended the day with one more point courtesy of Hansen defeating Timo Scheider.

A first and third in the two heat races put Jameel second for the Multi-Car Races behind Team Hansen’s second and first. The points accumulated throughout these rounds were then used to set the starting order for the four-lap Final on Saturday, with Jameel choosing the inside front row.

Unlike the Redemption Race and Grand Final format in Extreme E, where the grid was split for each race, the Extreme H Final had all eight cars compete against each other.

Hansen immediately took off while those behind him tried to jockey for position. It seemed as though everybody but Jameel experienced some form of trouble. KMS and STARD were knocked out of contention by penalties, while Carl Cox Motorsport fell behind early due to their battle with Team Hansen that sent both of them off. ZEROID QEV only completed a lap before retiring due to a brake failure.

Meanwhile, Hansen was clean and solid with a comfortable margin before passing off the car to Taylor. Taylor in turn beat Andersson as CCM recovered for second, by a very comfortable margin with Team EVEN right behind.

“To win the first ever FIA Extreme H World Cup is probably the biggest achievement in my career,” said Hansen. “It feels amazing. I never felt that much pressure before a race: standing on pole, for a Saudi team, for one race, winner takes it all. It felt so good to do a great start, great first run, pull a good gap, five seconds, and Molly brought it home perfectly.”

Final

Finish	Team	Driver 1	Driver 2
1	Jameel Motorsport	Kevin Hansen	Molly Taylor
2	Carl Cox Motorsport	Timo Scheider	Klara Andersson
3	Team EVEN	Ole Christian Veiby	Hedda Hosås
4	STARD	Patrick O’Donovan	Amanda Sorensen
5	Team Hansen	Andreas Bakkerud	Catie Munnings
6	Kristoffersson Motorsport	Johan Kristoffersson	Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky
7	JBX	Tommi Hallman	Christine GZ
8	ZEROID QEV Motorsport	Fraser McConnell	Gray Leadbetter

Multi-Car Races

Round 1

Finish	Heat 1 Team	Heat 2 Team
1	Jameel Motorsport	ZEROID QEV Motorsport
2	Team EVEN	Team Hansen
3	STARD	JBX
4	Kristoffersson Motorsport	Carl Cox Motorsport

Round 2

Finish	Heat 1 Team	Heat 2 Team
1	Team Hansen	Kristoffersson Motorsport
2	Carl Cox Motorsport	JBX
3	Jameel Motorsport	ZEROID QEV Motorsport
4	STARD	Team EVEN

Head-to-Head

Finish	Team	Points
1	Jameel Motorsport	11
2	STARD	10
3	Carl Cox Motorsport	8
4	JBX	7
5	Team Hansen	6
6	ZEROID QEV Motorsport	5
7	Team EVEN	4
8	Kristoffersson Motorsport	3

Time Trials

Finish	Team	Time
1	Kristoffersson Motorsport	11:23.391
2	Jameel Motorsport	11:23.982
3	Team Hansen	11:29.184
4	Team EVEN	11:30.109
5	JBX	11:32.125
6	Carl Cox Motorsport	11:34.257
7	ZEROID QEV Motorsport	11:37.186
8	STARD	12:27.162

Featured image credit: Birgit Dieryck