Nico Rosberg received many messages of congratulations following his team's win in the inaugural round in Saudi Arabia of the new Extreme E championship, but he did not hear from series rival and fellow team owner Lewis Hamilton.
The 2016 F1 world champion made the trip to Saudi Arabia last week to oversee Rosberg X Racing's debut in the new adventurous motorsport venture that regroups ten teams competing with electric SUVs off the beaten tracks in remote locations around the world to draw attention to the effects of climate change on our planet.
Rosberg was among the first motorsport personalities to commit to the innovative global series when it was announced last year, as was X44 founder Lewis Hamilton, while a third F1 world champion, Jenson Button, also joined the fray.
While Hamilton remained at home for Extreme E's maiden round, Rosberg was on hand to help guide the winning efforts of RXR's drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor who beat in Sunday's final at Al-Ula the entries of Andretti United and X44.
Asked after his team's win if Hamilton had called in to congratulate him for his success, Rosberg said he hadn't heard from his former F1 arch-rival.
"No, but he probably would have if he had my number," admitted the German.
"Still, how cool is that we are now competing against each other as team bosses and are also first and second in the championship? It’s funny that the duel now continues here."
Points allocated for qualifying and heat wins in addition to the final three-car showdown mean that Rosberg's RXR (35 points) indeed leads Hamilton's X44 team (30 points) after round 1, with the next race set to take place at Dakar in Senegal on May 29-30
"Our teams were in duels all weekend," added Rosberg, speaking to Sky Germany. "Sometimes his team was first, sometimes mine.
"It was a really big duel and in the end we were able to decide it our way, which made me very happy. But that will certainly continue throughout the season.
"The beauty of it is that the more intense our duel becomes, the more attention we can draw to the series – to the issues we are campaigning for, like fighting together against climate change."
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