Former F1 title rival Nico Rosberg beats Lewis Hamilton in Extreme E

Nico Rosberg’s X Racing team pipped former team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton’s Team X44 at the title-deciding Jurassic X-Prix to clinch the first Extreme E world championship.

Interestingly, the season finale of the inaugural world championship Extreme E season had striking similarities to the final race of the 2016 F1 world championship.

Heading into the season finale in Dorset, Lewis Hamilton’s X44 and Nico Rosberg’s RXR were the only teams in contention for the title, with the former trailing the latter in the standings.

The race was dominated by X44’s Cristina Gutierrez and Sebastien Loeb who led from lights to finish. Meanwhile, RXR’s Johan Kristofferson and Molly Taylor could only salvage a P4 finish to equal their points haul to their title rivals. However, they managed to clinch the title on a countback triggered by the tie, as they had two more wins across the season compared to Lewis Hamilton's Team X44.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Rosberg said:

“I’m so proud of our @rosbergxracing team to win the first-ever Extreme E Championship. It’s been such an intense season – racing in some of the world’s most remote locations… this one is forever! Our drivers have been excellent all season – the whole team worked so hard for this title and did fantastically. Thank you to all our strong partners and incredible fans… we did this together!!!”

Further down the field, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and rallycross champion Kevin Hansen of team JBXE – owned by former world champion Jenson Button – finished third in the overall standings after coming home second in Dorset.

Extreme E is the world’s first sustainable electric off-road racing series that was launched earlier this year and is also the first in the world to require teams to have at least one female driver in their line-up. Sanctioned by the FIA, the series has world championship status and features drivers from other series such as WRC, WEC, and more.

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Lewis Hamilton was being too nice to Max Verstappen in the title fight: Eddie Jordan

Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan feels Lewis Hamilton was being too nice to the “arrogant” Max Verstappen in their title fight and says that Hamilton needs to “harden up”.

In an interview with the BBC, Jordan said:

“You can’t deny Verstappen the right to the championship. However, on the other side, I think Hamilton has opened the door. He’s allowed someone as aggressive and arrogant as Verstappen to upset him and steal his title from him.”

Jordan has claimed that Hamilton has been “too nice” to Verstappen for “too long” and that “nice guys don’t win world titles”.

Jordan, who owned his namesake F1 team from 1991 to 2005, has been at the center of controversies in the past due to his statements. In early 2020, he claimed that Lewis Hamilton was in active talks to join Ferrari to replace the outgoing Sebastian Vettel after rumors surfaced of Hamilton meeting Ferrari boss John Elkann.