First Extreme E experience for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Jutta Kleinschmidt in the desert 21.02.2022: Nasser Al-Attiyah and Jutta Kleinschmidt have competed for the first time as teammates in Neom, Saudi Arabia The CUPRA Tavascan XE made its Extreme E debut Record number of engagements in the online voting “GridPlay” The ABT CUPRA XE

    Nasser Al-Attiyah and Jutta Kleinschmidt have competed for the first time as teammates in Neom, Saudi Arabia

    The CUPRA Tavascan XE made its Extreme E debut

    Record number of engagements in the online voting “GridPlay”

    The ABT CUPRA XE team missed the final by just two seconds, after finishing second in a dramatic race




Fast times, thrilling competition, great teamwork, and a bit of drama here and there – ABT CUPRA XE’s season opener had it all and whets the appetite for the races ahead.



Neom (Saudi Arabia) was the location for the start of the second season of Extreme E and hopes were high for 2022 to be a great year for the ABT CUPRA XE team. The goal is to pick up race wins and podium finishes, and get the maximum out of every round of the calendar.



With Nasser Al-Attiyah joining CUPRA veteran Jutta Kleinschmidt, the team was ready to move to the next level this season. However, in racing things aren’t always easy, and that’s what happened in Saudi Arabia over the first Extreme E weekend of 2022.


On Saturday, when it was time to push at qualifying to reach Sunday’s final, Al-Attiyah had an incident that affected the outcome of the entire race meet. While trying to overtake, Nasser took the inside line, and collided with Carlos Sainz. Due to this incident, the team received a point penalty, meaning ABT CUPRA XE team had to go through the ‘crazy race’ (four-car race with first place going through to the Final).



Jutta Kleinschmidt and Nasser Al-Attiyah faced the ‘crazy race’ with a determined spirit fighting against very strong competitors. After a great lap from Jutta, Nasser managed to catch up to second position, but even that wasn´t quite enough as the team missed out on a place in the final by just two and a half seconds.
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Nevertheless, the five-time Dakar-winning team, with its new CUPRA Tavascan XE, was among the crowd favourites on the desert circuit in Saudi Arabia. With 35% of the votes for Nasser Al-Attiyah and 5% for Jutta Kleinschmidt, ABT CUPRA XE won a record-breaking number of votes in the online voting “GridPlay” and, with strong times posted in all sectors, overall, it was a successful race day.



Jutta Kleinschmidt CUPRA ABT XE driver, said: “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this weekend. We made a good start, we were happy with our pace but a mistake in qualifying 1 and an incident in qualifying 2 from which we got a penalty, put us into the ‘crazy race’. The team needed the win to be in the final, and we came close to it, but it wasn’t enough, just two and a half seconds behind. It was disappointing to miss out this time, but we’ll keep fighting.”


Nasser Al-Attiyah, CUPRA ABT XE driver said: “It’s been a good week because I’ve learnt a lot despite the challenges we’ve had. I’ve made some mistakes but overall, I’m happy after the first experience. We’ve showed our speed at the wheel of the CUPRA Tavascan XE and I believe we can be strong and do much better at the upcoming rounds.”



Overall, ABT CUPRA XE is classified in eighth place and receives four points for the drivers’ and team championship.



We’ll have to wait until the 7th and 8th of May to race again, when the second round of the 2022 Extreme E season takes place in Sardinia (Italy). The experience of the first round will be helpful and hopefully better results will come. The ABT CUPRA XE team will keep pushing. This is just the beginning!




Arnaud Hacault, Yago Mercé - photos ExtremeE