Lewis Hamilton is aiming to finish off his championship-winning season with a victory in Formula One’s season-ending grand prix this weekend, and with the streets of Abu Dhabi festooned with the British driver’s No.44, such an outcome seems predestined.
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The Lights went down on Sunday and Hamilton made one of the starts of his career, shooting into the lead before the first corner, a place that would later be uncontested for the Championship leader.
Hamilton’s best lap was a tenth of a second ahead of Rosberg at the Yas Marina circuit, continuing Mercedes’ season-long dominance.
Daniil Kvyat was sixth-quickest in the second Red Bull Racing auto, the Russian finishing ahead of Ferraris Kimi Räikkönen and the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.
Mercedes, like all teams, generally has slightly different pit-stop timing and race strategy between its two drivers in case one proves a miscalculation.
“In general it’s going to be hard because I have an extremely old engine, as a result of having lost my fourth engine of the year”.
“Lewis didn’t show his pace on one lap”, said Rosberg. “It’s clear that he still has some in reserve”. “Today is not the real picture”.
“It’s a very different world from F1 – the teams are much smaller, to the extent that it nearly reminded me of my Formula Three days. We have always been very supportive of each other, messaging each other after our races and so on”, the Briton said in a column for the BBC.
Although Horner did not elaborate on the specifics of the contract, it is expected Red Bull will now see out the final year of their deal with Renault.
With both driver and team titles long since decided, the biggest news this weekend is likely to emerge away from the track with Red Bull’s future still shrouded in uncertainty. “So that is what we have got to work on”, Hamilton said.
The most effective world champions have a tendency to beat their teammates into submission – Sebastian Vettel’s pummelling of Mark Webber the most recent example – and in doing so draw their team around them to win those vital one-per-cents in intra-team battles.
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Pastor Maldonado was 10th for Lotus, whose participation in the event was only confirmed after F1 commercial ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone paid their expenses.
