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The 2015 Formula One season came to its conclusion under the lights of Abu Dhabi, with Nico Rosberg completing a career-first hat-trick of wins.
Converting a record sixth consecutive pole position, the German claimed the chequered flag ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton without challenge.
Hamilton’s race came with controversy over his Mercedes AMG team’s strategy calls. The Briton pitted 10 laps after Rosberg to extract the maximum out of his stint, but claims his team gave him no choice over tyres.
Behind the two teammates, Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen converted his third place on the grid to a third podium of the season, with an impeccable drive to clinch fourth in the standings over compatriot Valtteri Bottas – who had a shocking race.
The junior Finn made a poor start, then during the first phase of stops he was released into the path of Jenson Button, who rued the incident as being avoidable. A five-second penalty saw the Williams driver finish 13th.
Sebastian Vettel, in the sister Ferrari, scythed his way from 16th on the grid to fourth, making a set of supersoft tyres last from Lap 39 to the end at Lap 55.
Fifth place saw Sergio Perez put in another solid effort for Force India, ending the season with 20 more points than teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who had no problem in holding off the sole points finishing Williams of Felipe Massa in seventh.
Perez however didn’t have it too easy, with Daniel Ricciardo constantly pressuring the Mexican over that position. The Aussie in the Red Bull consolidated sixth, however lost his championship battle with teammate Daniil Kvyat, who finished 10th in the race to retain seventh in the standings by three points.
Things weren’t made easy for Romain Grosjean in his final outing with the Lotus squad, with the Frenchman copping a five-place grid penalty at the start for a change of gearbox. Starting on the soft tyres, Grosjean went from 15th to ninth, scoring points to end his long stint at Enstone.
Agonisingly missing out on the points was Carlos Sainz, who made it to the chequered flag around a second behind the Red Bull of Kvyat.
Sainz’s Toro Rosso teammate Max Verstappen had an adventuresome race, in which he had to conduct an extra stop for severely flat-spotted tyres. As well as that, the Dutch teenager was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits in his scrap with Button. He also copped a post-race drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags, when he was found to have impeded Hamilton during the latter part of the race. The end result for Verstappen was 16th.
The Saubers finished line astern, with Marcus Ericsson leading Felipe Nasr in 14th.
Fernando Alonso rued a drive-through penalty after a first-lap collision with Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan’s race came to a grinding halt, though the Spaniard maintains it was Nasr who punted him into the Lotus.
And in the Manor-Marussia duel, Will Stevens got the better of his returning teammate Roberto Merhi to round out the final two classified finishers.
A 12th one-two finish for the Silver Arrows means they’ve rewritten their own record, set in 2014. They’ve also claimed an incredible 702 constructor’s points, ahead of Ferrari’s 428 this season.
Williams end the season in third once again, while Red Bull made the best of their ill season in fourth. Force India claimed a first ever fifth in the standings, ahead of Lotus and Toro Rosso.
Nico Rosberg ends the season bettering his teammate, despite the title slipping away from him for the second year running. The German made no secret that he wishes that 2016 “started tomorrow” with his current momentum.
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