Rosberg’s team are the first Extreme E champions

Nico Rosberg’s team beat Lewis Hamilton’s to become the first champions of the new Extreme E off-road electric series on December 20.

The competition between former Formula 1 teammates and the world champions who have become owners, neither of whom has driven, resulted in a final ‘Jurassic X Prix’ in the south of England.

Rosberg X Racing’s Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor finished fourth in the event won by X44 riders Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez to finish tied on points but ahead 3-1 on wins.

JBXE, the team of 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button, finished third overall.

It was the second weekend in a row Hamilton had lost, the Mercedes driver beaten by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in his attempt for a Formula 1 championship record-breaking eighth in Abu Dhabi on December 12.

Hamilton and Rosberg, the 2016 Formula 1 champion, were previously teammates at Mercedes.

“We entered Extreme E to raise awareness about climate change and promote sustainability, but also as a racing team that we want to win and therefore we will remember that feeling forever,” said Rosberg.

Series founder Alejandro Agag was happy with how the inaugural season went.

“It hasn’t been easy in the midst of a pandemic, but we had five X Prix events and the final in Dorset produced some spectacular races,” said the Spaniard.

The last tour was at Bovington, a large no-go area of ​​forest and moor used by the British Army for tank and artillery training.

The series, with identical SUVs and male and female drivers in each range, aims to raise awareness of climate change and promote sustainability by running in remote and damaged environments.

Other tours were held in Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Greenland and Sardinia after those planned for the Brazilian Amazon and Argentine Patagonia were canceled due to COVID-19.