On Thursday, the Innoptus Solar Team finished third in Adelaide at the World Solar Car Racing Championship. Due to the bad weather, the Belgians decided to start half an hour later to store more energy in their battery, but this dropped them from second to third place.

They ultimately finished third in Adelaide, after a 3,021 km journey through the Australian outback. They were overtaken by the team from Twente.

Five days ago, the KU Leuven students started the competition in 16th place, after a disappointing qualifying round. They climbed up to second place but dropped back due to a blowout.

World championship for solar cars

The participating teams have pushed their cars, their drivers, and their batteries to the limit over the past few days. The teams were very evenly matched. The top 3 teams finished less than half an hour apart, which is truly unprecedented in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge takes place every two years and involves teams from all over the world traveling from Darwin to Adelaide, traversing the Australian outback. The competition is considered the unofficial world championship for solar cars.

Innoptus

The event has officially announced the Dutch Brunel Solar Team as the 2025 champion in 34:54:21, finishing approximately 15 minutes ahead of fellow Dutch team Twente, with Belgium’s Innoptus in third place.

Additional top-10 finishers include Sonnenwagen (4th), Tokai (5th), Western Sydney University (6th), Michigan (7th), JU Solar Team (8th), Eclipse (9th), and Neumann (10th).