ARCTIC MONKEYS
GREENLAND LOOKS BOTH familiar and otherworldly. Mountains soar above the green and reddish-brown tundra and crystal-clear lakes, similar to the landscape of the Peak District, the Highlands, or the west coast of Ireland. Pan around, though, and you’re suddenly confronted by a gigantic and sheer wall of ice that looks like it’s been plonked there via a movie director’s CGI.
This is the scene for Extreme E’s Arctic X Prix. The nearest settlement is Kangerlussuaq, towards the bottom of this vast country’s west coast. A colourful jumble of low-rises with a population of just 508, built around an airport, this is, in fact, the main transport hub for the whole of Greenland. Between World War II and the end of the Cold War, this was a US Air Force base. Beside the road out of town is the wreckage of a Lockheed T-33 jet which crashed in 1968 and has never been cleared away.
Extreme E’s drivers spent the August race week aboard the championship’s passengercargo-research vessel, the which was floating on the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, while the mechanics and
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