The reigning teams’ champions bounced back from a penalty in the final of Thursday’s opening event, which handed a maiden victory to Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing, to top both qualifying and its semi-final before coming home eight seconds clear of X44 in the final.
Kristofferson used an alternate route at the start of the final to slot into second behind Nasser Al-Attiyah, who maintained the lead for Abt Cupra until the Switch Zone.
But after taking over from Al-Attiyah, Jutta Kleinschmidt was unable to fasten her belts fully, resulting in Abt being disqualified at the finish.
Kristofferson handed over to Ahlin-Kottulinsky, who muscled her way past Kleinschmidt into the lead through a water hazard on lap two, before using the hyperdrive boost to pull clear and eventually win by 7.65s.
X44’s Christina Guettierez and Sebastien Loeb were promoted by Abt’s penalty, having finished a further second behind in third. Andretti United duo Catie Munnings and Kevin Hansen took the final podium berth, while Acciona Sainz stopped on the course with an issue.
RXR dominated Saturday’s qualifying heats, with their time in Q1 good enough to score an extra five points in the Traction Challenge. They faced a tough semi-final against Ganassi's Kyle LeDuc and Sara Price and a determined Acciona Sainz crew, having rebuilt its car following Carlos Sainz Snr’s huge crash.
Their passage to the final proved a formality, however, as a collision between Price and Sainz's team-mate Laia Sanz moments after the start put Ganassi out with suspension damage. Carrying bodywork damage, the Sainz machine came home 9s behind RXR to also progress.
Gutierrez gave X44 a 10s lead in the second semi-final, as Kleinschmidt used an alternate route at the start to snatch second from McLaren’s Emma Gilmour. The Kiwi remained glued to the back of the Abt car for the entire first lap, but McLaren lost ground in the switch zone, with Tanner Foust coming home a distant third.
After jumping onboard for Abt, Al-Attiyah halved the deficit through the first six waypoints to Loeb, who experienced a loss of power with the X44 machine, but held on to win by 4s.
Andretti won a wild ‘Crazy Race’ to secure its place in the final. Munnings held the lead after the start, despite a collision with Veloce Racing’s Lance Woolridge, who had emerged alongside from the alternate route. The pair battled throughout the first lap, with further contact resulting in Woolridge losing ground.
Veloce was demoted to third on lap two, when JBXE’s Kevin Hansen used his hyperdrive past Woolridge's team-mate Christina Giampaoli Zonca. Despite his best efforts, Hansen could not catch his brother Timmy, who brought his Andretti car home 10s clear. Xite Energy suffered an issue and limped home fourth.
