Veloce Racing faced a horrendous reality in their first Extreme E race in Al Ula, despite the initial Shakedown session that offered plenty of optimism.
Stéphane Sarrazin caught a patch of undergrowth that sent the car into double barrel-roll, having safely navigated ‘The Drop’, a 100m, 45-degree blind descend area, in the qualifying. Roll cage damage forced the team to rule out of the rest of Desert XPrix, resulting in Veloce coming away from the event with only 4 points.
Realising they left the whole session empty-handed, Sarrazin and the team is aiming to use the disappointment to fuel their competitive fire and come back even stronger in Ocean XPrix at Lac Rose in Dakar, Senegal on 29-30 May.
“I was pushing to try and set a good time, not at 110 percent but I was attacking nonetheless and we were right on the pace. What happened next was sheer bad luck. I had a moment of snap oversteer, which sent me into a tuft of camel grass that pitched the car into the roll and caused damage to the roll cage. It was sad that we weren’t able to continue, but that’s racing sometimes and we all make mistakes.” The disappointed Frenchman said after the weekend.
“There are still four events to go, which means four more opportunities to achieve good results. The most important thing is that the speed was clearly there, and rest assured we will work hard, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and give it our all again in Senegal.”
