Dakar history-maker bolsters RX2e line-up

History-making rally-raid star Cristina Gutiérrez will join the FIA RX2e Championship grid for the opening two rounds of its 2023 campaign in Norway and Sweden, as she bids to increase her experience of wheel-to-wheel competition.

Gutiérrez’s reputation in off-road racing precedes her. In 2017, she became the first female Spanish car driver ever to finish the legendary Dakar Rally, and four years later, she followed in the footsteps of Jutta Kleinschmidt in winning a stage of the gruelling endurance event. Last year, she made history again when she reached the rostrum in her category.

A multiple champion on the domestic scene, the 31-year-old also became the first woman to secure an FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies title in 2021, notably completing the final stage of the second round in Kazakhstan – which she won in the T3 class – with three broken vertebrae.

The same year, Gutiérrez partnered FIA World Rallycross Championship returnee and nine-time FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb to the runner-up spoils for Lewis Hamilton’s Team X44 in the inaugural season of Extreme E, going on to clinch the coveted crown 12 months later.

She will now dovetail her title defence in the electric off-road series with a brace of outings in RX2e, broadening her already diverse skillset in the sport when she makes her rallycross debut in just ten days’ time in Hell (17-18 June).

“Having the opportunity to compete in new disciplines is something that I always look for,” explained the Burgos native, who will test the ZEROID X1 in a private session at Calafat Circuit near to Barcelona before the campaign gets underway.

“It’s important for me to always be doing as many kilometres as possible in a car, and I have been interested in entering this series for a long time. The objective is none other than to learn and feel more comfortable in wheel-to-wheel races. I will be delighted to share moments with these experienced drivers and learn as much as possible from this great opportunity that I am going to have in this championship.”