So for Mercedes, it was a flawless end to a superb season that saw the team score 16 wins, with three escaping to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, just as three went to RBR’s Daniel Ricciardo past year.
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Pole-sitter Rosberg, who finished the championship 59 points behind Hamilton in second place, secured a hat-trick of victories for the first time in his Formula One career to hint at the potential for a sustained title tilt in 2016.
“I would like to congratulate Nico Rosberg on driving a fantastic race after what has been a very exciting Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend”, said Al Tareq Al Ameri, CEO of Yas Marina Circuit.
Meanwhile, Raikkonen was “best of the rest” and third in his Ferrari, 11.2s off Hamilton, and 19.4s off Rosberg.
Hamilton won his third world title with three races to spare in last month’s United States Grand Prix, but has subsequently finished second to Nico Rosberg at the ensuing rounds in Mexico, Brazil and the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Rosberg incidentally is only the second driver to win from pole in Abu Dhabi, the 30-year-old having recorded his sixth successive P1 start on Saturday.
“(It’s) too late for the championship of course, but so great now to have it (the win) and that’s it. I can’t tell you about next year unfortunately, but I’ll give it everything”.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton, acknowledged that this was a very hard race. “I’m sure the team is going to give us an awesome vehicle again”.
“Thanks so much to my team for this unbelievable Silver Arrow – everyone at the factories and the track has done such an incredible job all year”.
“I’m feeling very happy”, beamed Rosberg, whose recent performances have belied those he gave earlier in the season, suddenly giving voice to the suggestion that he may provide a much sterner challenge in 2016.
“We have to do an intelligent list in the next couple of weeks to analyse”.
“But I think we had a reasonably good speed, they didn’t really pull away a lot from us”.
“I think in hindsight, once Nico pitted, I would probably have backed off a little bit and I would have made those tires go a lot longer”, said Hamilton.
“It’s never nice to finish third but I’ll take it after previous races”.
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On a similar note, Sergio Perez cemented his best ever championship finish of ninth with a fine drive to fifth place – the seventh time in the final nine races that the Mexican has scored points.
