F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2015: Sun sets on season with easy victory for Nico Rosberg

The Mercedes driver completed a hat-trick of victories in a less than scintillating race

Nico Rosberg races during the of the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit (Getty Images)

Nico Rosberg completed his end-of-season hat-trick of victories last night in a less than scintillating Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton once again found himself fruitlessly chasing his elusive 44th triumph.

While Hamilton spoke as if he had been on holiday since clinching the title in Austin last month, Rosberg’s end-of-season upturn in fortunes has him already looking forward to next year. “I am excited about how the end of the season went,” Rosberg said. “Next year can come tomorrow for me; I don’t need any holidays. I’ll try and keep the current form going next year. I am sure the team will give us a great car once again.”

Rosberg surged into the lead from pole position, leaving Hamilton to struggle momentarily to fend off Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, and was always in charge thereafter.

Hamilton worked with his crew to extend his second stint so that he would have the advantage of fresher tyres over a shorter period in the closing stages, but it was to no avail.

Notably, Dutch rookie Max Verstappen, who had earlier clashed with Jenson Button, held him up for an entire lap with his Toro Rosso. Rosberg was able to extend the gap to a comfortable 8.2sec by the flag. But Hamilton remained unruffled, possibly aided by the fact that he still took 12 poles to Rosberg’s seven and won 10 races to his six, and yesterday’s result gave Mercedes their 12th one-two of the season.

“It’s been an amazing year, and happy 44th UAE National Day,” Hamilton told the crowd. “So happy to be here and celebrating it with the UAE; they’ve done an amazing job for this show. It’s been a good year. I’m happy. I’m happy it’s over, for sure, so now we can really enjoy.”

Hamilton had at one stage wanted to try getting through to the finish without that final pit call but had been told by his engineers it would be impossible. He said: “I think in hindsight once Nico pitted I should probably have backed off a little bit and I would have made those tyres go a lot longer. They were still fine at the end of their stint so I honestly felt I could potentially have taken them to the end of the race. But as that didn’t work out, going too long was probably not the right thing to do. But we gave it a try and did the best job I could with it.”

Rosberg admitted he was ecstatic to maintain the upper hand over the man who had beaten him to the title in Texas, where a momentary lapse had cost him victory. “Yeah, Austin was sort of the low point of the season,” he said. “It was a tough weekend and since then I’ve just come back a lot stronger.”

Raikkonen drove a strong race for Ferrari to take third and secure fourth in the world championship ahead of fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas, as Sebastian Vettel came up from 16th on the grid to take fourth for the Scuderia.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, ended doubts about his future by stating after the race that he would be back “100 per cent”. The Spaniard had another tough race, given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision at the first corner in a decision he said was symptomatic of the sport’s problems.

“Goodbye to 2015 because it has been a very tough year for us, very difficult and the performance has been quite poor,” the McLaren driver said. “I will be racing [in 2016], 100 per cent. If I had to choose a sabbatical year, I would choose this one.”

Most eyes in a dull event remained on the Mercedes pilots’ battle. But which goes into the winter feeling the happier? “I’m feeling very happy,” Rosberg said, looking it. “I think being world champion sounds a lot better than winning the race, so that’s good,” Hamilton said, as their game of one-upmanship continued. But Rosberg’s was the broader smile this time.