Tyre wear problems allow Lewis Hamilton to close up but world champion has to settle for second place; Kimi Raikkonen finishes third ahead of Sebastian Vettel
Wednesday 2 December 2015 15:38, UK
Nico Rosberg ended the season on a high after claiming his third straight win in the Abu Dhabi GP, finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.
Starting from pole position, Rosberg comfortably led the world champion and finished eight seconds clear at the chequered flag - although Hamilton had started coming back into contention midway through the race when his Mercedes team-mate started to struggle with tyre wear.
Rosberg predicted beforehand that front graining would be his biggest challenge and so it proved: after building a seven-second lead after his first pit stop, that advantage came back down to one second before he made his second stop on lap 32.
After that, Hamilton built a 15s lead - and wanted to keep going to the end of the race. However, after asking how slow he could go and still stay ahead, he was told it would be too big a gamble and was eventually pulled in 10 laps later.
With fresher tyres - but softs rather than supersofts - the scene was set for a grandstand finish. Yet it soon became apparent that although Rosberg's tyre concerns remained, his rival had perhaps stayed out too long.
"I think in hindsight once Nico had pitted I would have backed off a bit and made those tyres go a lot longer," Hamilton reflected. "The tyres were still fine at the end. So I honestly felt I could have potentially taken them to the end.
"But as that didn't work out, going too long probably wasn't the best thing to do. But we gave it a try."
The championship might long have been settled in Hamilton's favour but it was a vital win for Rosberg, who needs to rebuild his confidence during the winter if he's to mount a more sustained challenge next year.
"Austin was the low point of the season, since then I have come back a lot stronger and I am excited about how the end of the season went," he said. "Next year can come tomorrow for me, I don't need any holidays."
The result also enabled Mercedes to sign off in record-breaking style, with their 12th one-two of 2015 also allowing them to score more points - 703 - than any other constructor during a season.
Raikkonen finished third ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who started 15th on the grid and climbed as high as second in a long opening stint before eventually settling for fourth place.
The Finn's strong performance meant that the podium always appeared out of reach for Vettel, whose strategy put him ahead of Raikkonen a couple of times, but who was then asked to let his team-mate back through.
Even so, running supersoft tyres in his final stint, Vettel was able to pass Daniel Ricciardo and then Sergio Perez, who had briefly looked like passing Hamilton at the first corner from fourth on the grid but eventually settled for P5.
Behind Ricciardo, meanwhile, came Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa, with Romain Grosjean ninth in his final race for Lotus and Daniil Kvyat completing the top 10.
Carlos Sainz finished 11th after running in tandem with team-mate Max Verstappen early on, although the Dutch teenager did himself no favours with a big lock-up that forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop.
Verstappen then ran off the track fighting Jenson Button and was also penalised for ignoring blue flags on his way to 16th place.
The McLaren driver, meanwhile, finished 12th ahead of Valtteri Bottas - who was himself penalised when Williams released him into the path of Button's car as they made their first stops.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso's last day at the office in 2015 brought more frustration. He too fell foul of the stewards after a collision with Pastor Maldonado's Lotus at the first corner, with the Spaniard running last thereafter.
Perhaps predictably, a radio message followed. "If we don't have a Safety Car, I will retire the car," said Alonso, who in the event soldiered on to the chequered flag two laps behind the leaders.
Abu Dhabi GP result
1. N Rosberg, Mercedes, 55 laps
2. L Hamilton, Mercedes, +8.2s
3. K Raikkonen, Ferrari, +19.4
4. S Vettel, Ferrari, +43.7
5. S Perez, Force India, +63.9
6. D Ricciardo, Red Bull, +65.0
7. N Hulkenberg, Force India, +93.6
8. F Massa, Williams, +97.7
9. R Grosjean, Lotus, +98.2
10. D Kvyat, Red Bull
11. C Sainz, Toro Rosso
12. J Button, McLaren, 1 lap
13. V Bottas, Williams, 1 lap
14. M Ericsson, Sauber, 1 laps
15. F Nasr, Sauber, 1 lap
16. M Verstappen, Toro Rosso ,1 lap
17. F Alonso, McLaren, 2 laps
18. W Stevens, Manor, 2 laps
19. R Merhi, Manor, 3 laps
Ret. P Maldonado, Lotus
Don't miss the F1 Midweek Report for analysis of the Abu Dhabi GP and all the latest F1 news. Former BAR boss David Richards and car designer Gary Anderson join Natalie Pinkham on Sky Sports F1 at 8:30pm on Wednesday.
