Extreme E: Hamilton has second title in a week snatched away despite win
Lewis Hamilton has had a second world title snatched away from him within seven days as former Formula 1 rival Nico Rosberg’s Extreme E team won the inaugural world championship.
Hamilton’s X44 Extreme E racing team won their first race in the final outing of the season but couldn’t surpass Nico Rosberg’s RXR racing team in the championship standings.
The win, combined with XRX’s fourth place, had the ex-Mercedes rivals on exactly the same points come the chequered flag – 155 – but XRX’s three wins compared to X44’s one win saw them take the title.
This comes precisely a week on from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where the Brit saw his hopes of an eighth world title controversially snatched away from him on the final lap.
X44’s Cristina Gutierrez and Sebastian Loeb did everything they could in the final race of the season, on the Jurassic coast of Dorset, but RXR’s Molly Taylor and Johan Kristoffersson did just enough in finishing fourth to do to secure the championship.
Speaking after the event, XRX founder and team principle Nico Rosberg said: “A bit tense? Massively tense.
“Molly and Johan did such a great job out there today, just managing the situation and bringing home the points we needed.”
Jenson Button’s JBXE team finished second in the Jurassic X Prix, with Andretti United XE in third.
Both Hamilton and Rosberg’s team finished the season on 155 points, while Button’s team came third with 119.
The inaugural race win for X44 team comes after owner and co-founder Lewis Hamilton was knighted at Windsor castle on Wednesday in a period of seven days which also saw him controversially lose the Formula 1 world championship.
Extreme E has now concluded its first season of five races and will commence its second season next year with new entry McLaren.
The season consisted of the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia, the Ocean X Prix in Senegal, the Arctic X Prix in Greenland, the Island X Prix in Italy and the Jurassic X Prix in the UK.
Season 2 gets underway in February in Saudi Arabia.