Rain soaked Nigeria’s bustling metropolis of Lagos on Sunday hosted a race in the UIM E1 World Championship, an all-electric powerboat racing series — the first time that such an event has been held in Africa.
An earlier tropical storm delayed the start of the finals with nine teams belonging to some of the world’s top sporting and entertainment stars waiting for hours for the storm to clear.
The E1 Lagos Grand Prix — the penultimate round of the season — was held on Lagos’s lagoon, ahead of the season finale in Miami later this year.
Africa is the fourth continent to host an E1 race during the series’ second season, as the championship has expanded from five to seven races.
Previous competitions have been held in Doha, Monaco and Miami.
“Africa needed to be there, the motherland needed to be there, so we are incredibly proud to be here,” Rodi Basso, founder and CEO of E1 told AFP.
“We made history in Lagos today. This weekend’s race is a landmark moment for our World Championship and for Africa — proving the continent’s appetite for motorsport, sustainability, and technological innovation,” he added in a post-race statement.
– Come rain, come sun’ –
Under grey skies and showers, fans gathered around white tents erected as watching areas along the waterfront while afrobeats music blared from huge speakers and vendors sold food including Nigeria’s staple: jollof rice.
Other fans watched from balconies of hotels and lofty office blocks — some sipping champagne.
Bumi Oke, a 61-year-old advertising executive and her husband came to watch the race “out of curiosity”.
“It’s almost as if you’re abroad” and hosting the race gave “Nigerians more confidence in our own ability to host global events”, she said.
“When you do international events, business goes on come rain, come sun.”
Ivory Coast football legend Didier Drogba and his partner Gabrielle Lemaire, who were instrumental in bringing the race to the continent for the first time, mingled with the winners and posed for pictures on the post-race podium.
Global sporting and entertainment celebrities, including Drogba, Super Bowl legend Tom Brady, American basketball great LeBron James, and Grand Slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal own E1 teams.
Team Brazil, owned by tech entrepreneur Marcelo Claure, won the race, with Indian professional cricketer Virat Kohli’s Team Blue Rising coming second and Drogba’s team third.
“It’s a first win for Team Brazil in E1,” Swedish pilot Timmy Hansen told AFP, adding that there’s “a big difference” performing in Nigeria compared to other cities.
“There are so many happy, incredible, cheerful people here.”
The boat pilots — a man and a woman for each team — were drawn from various sports, including motorsport, go-karting and powerboating.
In preparation for the race, the Lagos state government spent weeks cleaning the waterways of plastic and other waste that is usually dumped into the lagoon.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the state governor, said that the race was a lesson to residents to stop “dumping refuse in our waterways”.
“It’s now a place where we’re showing to the world. It’s like Monaco, it’s like any other water in any part of the world.”
