Lewis Hamilton's X44 Wins 2022 Extreme E Championship
Extreme E might be the most strange series in auto racing. Not only is it an all-electric rally raid championship, it is a championship that claims to raise awareness about climate change by driving through areas threatened by it and gets to those areas on a ship that also acts as a floating laboratory. It is fitting, then, that the year's championship came down to a battle between team owners with a strange history of their own.
Inaugural Extreme E champions Rosberg X Racing came into this weekend's last chance qualifying race with a shot to beat out his former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton's X44 Racing. RXR Driver Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky was hit by a competitor early in that qualifier, however, and the team was disqualified from that race after too many mechanics came over the wall to fix the car. That left RXR with a more slim shot of a title entering the final race, but X44's drivers held on for a patient fourth, enough to secure the championship.
That makes X44 drivers Sebastian Loeb and Cristina Guttierez champions, adding another honor to Loeb's truly astonishing resume that also includes another WRC win during his part-time schedule this season. The X44 title also adds to the resume of team owner and winningest F1 driver ever Lewis Hamilton, not to mention the continuing legend of rallying powerhouse and X44 team partner Prodrive.
The next five-round Extreme E season begins in March. Two events were canceled this season, leading to just four locations over five points-paying X-Prix rounds.
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