Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second place on the podium as Mercedes colleague Nico Rosberg won the 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Advertisement
Even as his team-mate sat in 15th position on the grid, it was debatable whether Kimi Raikkonen, despite starting from third, would end the 55-lap race ahead of Sebastian Vettel. This is his third successive victory of the season. “Next year could start tomorrow for me – I don’t need a holiday”.
German Silver Arrows star Rosberg, who started on pole, took the chequered flag with a dominant drive to make it three grand prix wins in a row and six for 2015.
When he did eventually pit there was no chance for him to compete for the win as he was 12.5 seconds behind Rosberg, but there seems to be contradictory stories coming from the driver and his team.
Hamilton finally made his second stop after 42 laps, re-joining on the harder tyres 13 seconds behind Rosberg with 13 laps remaining. “The tyres were still fine so I honestly felt I could potentially have taken them to the end”.
“I don’t think we’ve ever done either so there’s no reason to change”, replied Hamilton.
Rosberg thanked his team for their efforts in 2015, and revealed with the form he has shown in recent weeks that he would have liked to continue racing, but is already focusing on where he can improve next season.
“This is the ideal ending to the season for me – something I hoped for so much after a tough year”, Rosberg said.
“As that didn’t work out, the stop, going too long was probably not the right thing to do, but we gave it a try…”
Rosberg crossed the line 8.2 seconds clear of Hamilton – leaving the world champion with mixed emotions.
“What I can say is that there have been a lot of discussions lately about whether Nico has stepped up, whether the vehicle has come more towards him development-wise, or whether Lewis has unconsciously just taken it a bit too easy”, said motorsport boss Toto Wolff.
Rosberg started well from pole and was always in charge of a tactical race, even after Hamilton tried to extend his second stint so that he would have the advantage of fresher soft-compound Pirelli tyres in the losing stages. “But we gave it a try and did the best job I could with it”.
Hamilton had emerged behind Vettel, who had charged through the field from 15th, but promptly passed him on the straight on lap 14. Valterri Bottas was going well with his Williams, but was charged with a five second penalty, when his team made an unsafe release of his vehicle, shaving the back end of McLaren’s Jenson Button and ripping off half of the Finn’s front wing.
Advertisement
Williams’ Felipe Massa hung on during the later part of the race to secure P8 ahead of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, in his final race for the team before joining Haas F1 next year, while Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10 despite encountering electronic problems.
