How Rosberg triumphed over Hamilton in 2021's final showdown

The last hurrah of the 2021 motorsport season boiled down to another Nico Rosberg versus Lewis Hamilton head-to-head. As in 2016, it was the former who won out, his RXR Extreme E team prevailing in a tiebreaker following a tense final round of the all-electric off-road series at Dorset's muddy Bovington military base

Published Dec 20, 2021, 4:53 PM

Did motorsport possess one last championship-deciding shock in 2021? That was the question at hand as Extreme E concluded its inaugural season at the Ministry of Defence-owned Bovington military base in Dorset, the replacement venue for an Argentine round cancelled by COVID-19.

A showdown for effective sister series Formula E had been largely determined by a startline shunt wiping out two of the chief title protagonists. The outcome of World Rallycross was skewed by a penalty, GTE Pro settled by a punt, the DTM resolved by audacious first-corner lunges. And then, of course, Formula 1 stole the turbulent show in Abu Dhabi.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.