RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) star Molly Taylor has continued her strong international form with another win in the Extreme E Series.
With four rounds having been held in the series’ inaugural season so far, Taylor and Rosberg X Racing teammate Johan Kristoffersson’s victory in the Island X Prix saw them take out their third victory for the year.
It’s been a dominant season for the duo after they won the opening two rounds, however they were slightly fortunate during the weekend’s round in Sardinia as other contenders sustained terminal damage to their cars.
Despite mixed qualifying sessions, which included Taylor having a rollover and Kristoffersson suffering a late puncture, the duo were able to find their pace and qualify in P2 after the combined sessions.
In their semi-final, they cruised to victory and remained untroubled, however when it came to the Final, the series leaders had a slow start and dropped to third.
Not long into the final race of the round, the team’s biggest title rivals in Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez were forced to retire themselves when the X44 truck’s toe-link snapped and steering failed.
Although Taylor moved into second at the expense of the X44 truck, they were still quite a way off chasing down Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Leduc and Sara Price, who had overcome a rocky start and extended their lead to 45 seconds.
When the drivers switched and Price took over, the damage sustained from Leduc’s bumpy start soon proved too much for the car and Price was forced to bring the truck to a halt due to a front-right steering failure, ultimately opening up the door for Kristoffersson to cruise to the lead and steer the car to a comfortable 25 second win.
“I’m absolutely over the moon and relieved after what felt like a really challenging weekend for us,” Taylor said post-event.
“It was a fantastic job by the whole team to keep fighting even as we came across some challenges right up until the very end.
“It was an extremely difficult race but we never gave up and I’m delighted with the result.”
Taylor and Kristoffersson are in the box seat to claim the historic title with the duo enjoying a 16-point advantage over the X44 of Loeb and Gutiérrez ahead of the final round.
The Extreme E now has an extended break before heading to Bovington in England for the Jurassic X Prix on 18-19 December.
