Jeddah once again underlined its importance to the UIM E1 World Championship presented by PIF and further enhanced its status as a world-class sports destination by hosting a spectacular season-opening race.

E1, the world’s only all-electric raceboat series, has begun each of its three seasons on the Jeddah Corniche – and with this year’s competition expanded to 10 teams and eight races, expectations were high for an event that has set the benchmark for both previous seasons.

Jeddah duly delivered with two days of riveting racing, with thousands of fans watching on with a dramatic day of qualifying on Friday and culminating in Saturday’s action-packed races.

After four fiercely-contested rounds, it was Aoki Racing Team – piloted by Sara Misir and Dani Clos – who won a second successive Jeddah title, earning 40 points and setting a marker for the rest of the championship.

Defending Series champions Team Brady took the runner-up spot and 33 points, while Saudi-backed Team AlUla championed by LeBron James completed the podium and earned 24 points.

The victory on the Red Sea was a repeat for Aoki Racing, who clinched the trophy in 2025 when piloted by Saudi pioneer Mashael Al Obaidan alongside Clos. Al Obaidan was absent from Jeddah this year but has signed for Team Blue Rising and will join her new team for the remainder of the season, once she recovers from injury.

His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, Minister of Sport, presented the winners’ trophy to Aoki Racing, while His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Salman, President of the Saudi Water Sports and Diving Federation, presented the second-place trophy to Team Brady.

Prince Sultan said: “A fantastic event. I'm most proud of the fact that as Saudis, we can do things other people cannot do. We have no roof for what we can achieve, so I'm super proud of the team and of everyone that contributed to this. We will celebrate today, and then tomorrow, we work for the next race.

“Having so many kids at E1 has been absolutely vital. I'm a very firm believer in getting to people as early as possible, teaching them things like how to use sports to better the environment, which you can see with E1 being 100 percent electric boats. We designed the event to be more kid-friendly than adult-friendly. We want kids to enjoy it. This is for them. This is for their family.”