Lewis Hamilton avenged his fierce former F1 rival Nico Rosberg - with his team's dramatic victory in the thrilling new Extreme E series.
Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton 's X44 team snatched victory from Rosberg's inaugural champions in an action-packed season finale in Uruguay. The X44 drivers Sebastien Loeb and Critisina Gutierrez were 17 points behind the Rosberg X Racing team heading into Sunday's final race in Punta del Este.
But the duo delighted avid fan and X44 owner Hamilton by completing the most unlikely of comebacks to defeat Rosberg's side by two points in the overall standings of the groundbreaking new series. Loeb and Gutierrez finished third in the final round to shock Rosberg's drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky.
The result marked a complete role reversal from the inaugural year, where Rosberg's team defeated Hamilton's X44 side on a tiebreak after the two teams incredibly finished level on points. And Hamilton was overjoyed after getting one over his former Mercedes teammate Rosberg following two chaotic days of racing.
"I am so blown away by this comeback after such a difficult day yesterday," he wrote on Instagram. “The team rebuilding, staying position and coming out fighting. Wow, I’m so proud of the team and these two amazing drivers.”
The F1 champions are both heavily involved in the exciting new off-road electric series, which aims to raise awareness of climate change whilst also promoting female drivers with identical SUVs.
The series is based in remote and damaged race settings to promote sustainability, while there are also male and female drivers in every racing team. And Hamilton will take pleasure in overcoming Rosberg in the second edition of the series after the pair's often distasteful rivalry in F1.
The strong rivalry grew amid Mercedes' sustained dominance from 2014 onwards and Rosberg retired after defeating Hamilton to his maiden F1 title in 2016.
And the duo, who were close friends through the motorsport junior ranks, saw their relationship completely break down during their intense title battles, with Rosberg later claiming 'it just got too heated and too extreme'.
