Relive the moments - controversies, crashes, overtakes, funnies and near-misses - that mattered in the year of Formula 1...
Thursday 24 December 2015 09:12, UK
We pick out our top 10 moments of F1 in 2015, featuring the good, the bad and ugly of life in the fast lane on and off the track….
CAPGATE: NICO THROWS A STROP
If 2015 will be remembered for one moment, it's capgate, when an indignant Nico Rosberg threw his podium cap back at Lewis Hamilton moments after the Englishman had clinched his third World Championship at the US GP.
REMEMBERING JULES
In the year's most powerful moment, the sport stood united ahead of the Hungarian GP when the drivers and members of Jules Bianchi's family paid tribute to the late Marussia driver. Jules' passing was the first death in the sport since Ayrton Senna perished at the 1994 San Marino GP.
THE SINGAPORE TRACK INVADER
In one of the season's strangest - and most dangerous - incidents, the Singapore GP was interrupted in September when a fan climbed on to the circuit. The track invader, first spotted by Sebastian Vettel from the cockpit of his race-leading Ferrari, was later identified as a 27-year-old British national. In November, Singapore authorities jailed him for six weeks.
HERE COME THE GIRLS
Is this the future of F1 press conferences? The post-race event in Sochi took on an entirely new flavour when the Russian GP grid girls invaded the room - much to the approval of Hamilton, Vettel and Sergio Perez…
THE FAULTY MONTE
Remember this? In the season's most debated on-track controversy, Hamilton lost a near-certain victory in Monaco when Mercedes pitted him for a second tyre stop, demoting Lewis from first to third and handing the win to Rosberg.
McLAREN-HONDA'S ONLY TIME IN THE SUN
Having reunited amid headline-grabbing hullabaloo, McLaren-Honda proved to be one of the stories of the year - but for all the wrong reasons as the team endured a horrible season, beating only the scoreless Manor outfit in the Constructors' Championship. Their 2015 ignominy was encapsulated by an awful weekend in Brazil which prompted Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to stage a spoof podium ceremony, but not before the Spaniard had provided the defining image of the F1 year by sunbathing by the side of the track after his car had broken down at the start of qualifying…
ROMAIN V JACKMAN
They say jackmen in F1 are crazy and Lotus' Romain Grosjean proved why during the Spanish GP when he sent one of his mechanics flying down the pitlane after overshooting his pit box. Remarkably, the relatively-unharmed mechanic got back to his feet to complete the stop and Grosjean finished the race eighth to claim some precious points for the Lotus outfit.
A DENT IN THE CELEBRATIONS
After leaping into the big time in 2014 when he beat team-mate Sebastian Vettel, 2015 was an altogether tougher year for Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo - but at least he never lost his sense of humour, as seen in the Budapest paddock when he dropped his third-place trophy following the Hungarian GP. Note the reaction of F1 Midweek Report regular Will Buxton in the background...
A NEAR-MISS IN THE PITLANE
Having only been appointed as Ferrari's new team principal at the end of 2014, Maurizio Arrivabene made an instant impression in the paddock with the 58-year-old credited as the driving force behind the Scuderia's revitalised on-track form. But Maurizio was rather less sure-footed in the pitlane itself during the Austrian GP when, in a flagrant disregard of the Green Cross Code, he wandered out into the path of Felipe Massa's Williams…
VETTEL TYRED OUT
Sometimes F1 doesn't go to plan - and when it doesn't, the results can be spectacular. Sebastian Vettel endured a heart-stopping moment at the end of August's Belgian GP when his right-rear tyre exploded at the top of Eau Rouge. An angry Vettel later branded Pirelli's tyres "unacceptable". The manufacturer responded by issuing stricter restrictions on tyre pressures for the remaining races - all of which passed without comparable incident.
MAX ON THE ATTACK: SPA TREATMENT
Leave the best to last. While 2015 was by no means a classic season in the annals of F1 history, the year was repeatedly lit up by the dynamism of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen whose overtaking proved to be an enduring highlight - with none better than his move around the Sauber of Felipe Nasr at Spa's Blanchimont. The kid did great…
