Nico Rosberg completed the season with a hat-trick of victories, beating his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The season finale lacked drama compared to the previous years as the Formula 1 world championships have been wrapped up already. For Rosberg, this was a comfortable lights-to-flag triumph at the Yas Marina circuit.
Since winning the title at the US Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had no answer to the speed of Nico Rosberg.
It seems the big pressure was off and Rosberg won every subsequent race, finishing another runner-up campaign with six successive pole positions in total, and a run of victories that took him to 14 overall and provided him with a lift ahead of the 2016 season.
Come the end of the 55 laps Rosberg finished 8.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who opted for a different race strategy in a bid to find a way past his team-mate, only to fall short.
When Rosberg made his second pit-stop on lap 31, Hamilton opted to stay out rather than pit on the following lap.
As Hamilton extended the life out of a set of soft Pirelli tyres there followed an exchange of messages between driver and the pitwall over to whether he could go to the end of the race.
With Rosberg closing rapidly, Hamilton eventually pitted for a second time after 41 laps, but rather than taking on super-softs – although he had no new sets left, only used – the switch was to softs, leaving him with a 12.5 seconds margin.
There was another brief surge, but ultimately it was game over for Hamilton who had to settle for runner-up to Rosberg again.
Mercedes set a new record with a twelveth one-two of the season. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished on the podium for only the third time this year, and for once ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who rose from P15 on the grid to fourth.
The Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished a strong fifth and seventh either side of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Williams driver Felipe Massa was eighth, followed by Romain Grosjean in his final race for Lotus ahead of his move next season to Haas. Grosjean used an alternative strategy and a late charge on super-softs to come through from P19 on the grid.
Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten in his Red Bull, fending off Carlos Sainz Jr.
Incidents in a hectic first part of the race included a collision in the pitlane between Valtteri Bottas and Jenson Button.
As Bottas was released – unsafely according to the stewards as he was penalised with a five-second time penalty – and as Button cut across into his pitbox, the Williams caught the rear of the McLaren.
The incident resulted in damage to Button’s rear wing, while Bottas sustained front-wing damage, leading to a long, slow lap back to the pits for a new nose.
That relegated Bottas to P18 at the time, with Fernando Alonso the only man behind as the two-time champion had required his own new front wing at the end of lap one in the wake of a first-corner crash with Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus.
It was the ninth time this season Maldonado had retired, while Alonso’s error incurred the wrath of the stewards as he was also penalised with a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.
Running around at the rear, and just before the midway point of the race, the double world champion suggested he had had enough when he declared over the radio: “If we don’t get a safety car I will retire the car”.
However, Alonso kept going to the flag, ending his worst season – in terms of points scored – since his 2001 debut with Minardi – down in P17, with only Manor duo Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi behind him.
And so ends the 2015 Formula 1 world championship. Full credit to Mercedes in providing a utterly dominant racing car and Lewis Hamilton in winning the title. The others needs to step up their game. Roll on next season.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race results after 55 laps:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38:30.175
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +8.271s
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +19.430s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +43.734s
5 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +63.952s
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +65.010s
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +93.618s
8 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes +97.751s
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes +98.201s
10 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault +102.371s
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault +103.525s
12 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda +1 lap
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
16 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault +1 lap
17 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda +2 laps
18 Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps
19 Roberto Merhi Marussia-Ferrari +3 laps
– Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes DNF
Drivers’ championship:
1 Lewis Hamilton 381
2 Nico Rosberg 322
3 Sebastian Vettel 278
4 Kimi Raikkonen 150
5 Valtteri Bottas 136
6 Felipe Massa 121
7 Daniil Kvyat 95
8 Daniel Ricciardo 92
9 Sergio Perez 78
10 Nico Hulkenberg 58
11 Romain Grosjean 51
12 Max Verstappen 49
13 Felipe Nasr 27
14 Pastor Maldonado 27
15 Carlos Sainz 18
16 Jenson Button 16
17 Fernando Alonso 11
18 Marcus Ericsson 9
19 Roberto Merhi 0
20 Alexander Rossi 0
21 Will Stevens 0
Constructors’ championship:
1 Mercedes 703
2 Ferrari 428
3 Williams-Mercedes 257
4 Red Bull-Renault 187
5 Force India-Mercedes 136
6 Lotus-Mercedes 78
7 Toro Rosso-Renault 67
8 Sauber-Ferrari 36
9 McLaren-Honda 27
10 Marussia-Ferrari 0
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that he regrets not taking a risky strategy during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the full story.
Lewis Hamilton wishes he had tried something more risky with his strategy in Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after losing out again to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg converted his sixth consecutive pole position into a third-straight win to see out the 2015 F1 season, while Hamilton could only get close ahead of the final pitstops.
Mercedes then tried to extend Hamilton’s middle stint to give him fresher tyres to attack Rosberg at the end, but the world champion was unable to make up the deficit in the closing laps and came home second again.
Asked about his strategy after the race, Hamilton said: “I did what I was told pretty much.
“I tried as hard as I could in the first stint, keeping a decent gap to Nico, looking after the tyres.
“The second stint I was quicker, getting close [one second behind], and I could have made the tyres last longer.
“But it was down to the team which tyre we went to for the final stint.
“I’m not sure if I could have taken my tyres to the end – some part of me wishes I had just given it a go.”
Hamilton had a lengthy exchange with the Mercedes pitwall regarding his strategy before his final stop, and in the end his request to try nursing the tyres to the finish was overruled by Mercedes because he would have been unable to keep Rosberg at bay.
“In hindsight, once Nico pitted I probably would have backed off a little bit and I’d have made those tyres go a lot longer,” he said.
“The tyres were fine so I honestly felt I could have taken them to the end, but that didn’t work.
“Going too long [before the final stop] was probably the wrong thing to do, but we gave it a try and I did the best job I could with it.”
Hamilton also said he would ask Mercedes why it kept changing his engine mode during the race.
“I’m not really sure why it was like that because I had lots of life left [in the engine],” he said.
“I’ll ask when I get back to the debrief.”
Fernando Alonso believes Formula 1 officials lack the consistency of their World Endurance Championship and MotoGP counterparts after his penalty for hitting Pastor Maldonado in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Alonso was given a drive-through and two penalty points on his licence for spearing into Maldonado’s Lotus at the first corner of the 2015 F1 season finale at Yas Marina, breaking its suspension and ending the Venezuelan’s race.
But Alonso said the incident had been triggered by his McLaren getting a hit from Sauber driver Felipe Nasr going into the braking zone.
The 2005/06 champion claimed such decisions were to blame for declining F1 audiences.
“We blame the sound of the cars for there being less and less spectators at the track,” asid Alonso.
“The FIA should look at other categories like MotoGP or WEC and how successful they are and how consistent they are with the penalties.
“They need to use some common sense.
“Today to have a drive-through after you’ve been hit by another car is a little bit strange, or maybe unique.
“I don’t see this in WEC or MotoGP or other categories that are much more fun than us.”
The stewards’ panel at the Abu Dhabi GP included long-time F1 racer Derek Warwick as driver representative.
Maldonado shrugged off the crash as a racing incident, but joked that there would have been a much bigger furore had he caused it.
“It happened, this is racing,” he said.
“Imagine if it was the other way around – big news!”
After an extra pitstop for repairs even before the penalty, Alonso found himself in a distant last place and intimated that he wanted to retire from the race.
He ultimately continued and beat the Manors to 17th, setting third-fastest lap after changing to super-softs eight laps from the end.
“We were I think two laps behind the other guys and we had to save tyres, save fuel and save everything,” he said.
“I said ‘guys, we have to have fun, to push flat-out and see what the limit is of the car and then if we have no fuel to finish the race it will be OK’.
“I don’t think finishing is the main priority when you’re 18th.”
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has admitted that the performance by the Scuderia this season has been a miracle. Autosport.com has the details.
Sebastian Vettel declared Ferrari’s return to form in 2015 as “a miracle” at the end of his first season with the team in Formula 1.
The four-time world champion won three races for the Maranello-based team this year, making him the only driver other than Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to taste victory during the F1 season.
Vettel believes that Ferrari’s turnaround from a winless 2014 campaign, and its progress against Mercedes over the course of this year, were both phenomenal achievements.
“If we look at how were at testing compared to now, it is a miracle,” said Vettel.
“It is a miracle where we started off in the winter, setting fastest times.
“Going into Australia we were obviously way behind [Mercedes] and I haven’t seen any other team making that much progress in a season so we are closer.
“We are not close enough yet but we can really fight them and put them under pressure.
“We had a lot of smiles this year so if we can increase the number of smiles then it is good news.
“Now I look forward to saying ‘cheers’ for the great season that we’ve had and enjoying that moment.”
Vettel recovered from his Q1 elimination in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday to take fourth behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, and he said that was the best result Ferrari could hope for in the finale.
“Yesterday we did a mistake and we made it right in the race, but in the end Kimi had a clean race for P3,” he said.
“The best result one way or another would be P3 and P4 so we can be very happy with today.
“You always want to be closer to the guy in front but we’ve had a lot of races where we have finished third and fourth behind Mercedes.
“I don’t have any regrets. Considering where we started [15th], it was the best we could do.”
Williams’s head of performance engineering Rob Smedley believes Valtteri Bottas’ pit release was at the right point. Autosport.com has the story.
The Williams Formula 1 team believes it released Valtteri Bottas at the right time when the Finn collided with Jenson Button in the pits during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Bottas hit the McLaren as it peeled into its box when he was exiting his own first stop, breaking his front wing and forcing an extra pitstop for repairs.
The stewards investigated the incident and found Williams to be in breach of the regulations through an unsafe pitstop release, awarding Bottas a five-second time penalty.
Williams’s head of performance engineering Rob Smedley suggested the correct procedures were followed and the clash occurred because Bottas saw Button too late.
“We’ll have to analyse it and understand exactly what happened,” he said.
“We released him at the right point but unfortunately he saw the McLaren too late.
“When he saw Jenson, he braked, but Jenson was in the part of the road that he was going to.
“We have a signal to the drivers that tells them traffic is approaching and they need to stay on the right-hand side or further towards the slow lane.
“He did that, but they just had a coming together because he saw Jenson too late.”
Button agreed with the stewards that Williams’s actions were unsafe.
“I saw that he was going to get released,” he said. “Obviously you’re not really supposed to as I was pulling in.
“I was bracing for the hit. It disrupted our pitstop quite a bit and the boys were a bit scared when I came into the box, so we lost a lot of time.
“They obviously released him a bit early. I could see it coming as well.
“I tried to move out of the way but it’s not my fault because he’s driven into the back of the car. Obviously a whack on the rear is never positive.”
Bottas later caught Button again on track but could not pass him in the final laps and finished 13th.
Max Verstappen is four penalty points away from a Formula 1 race ban after being given three points and two time penalties for separate Abu Dhabi Grand Prix incidents.
Toro Rosso’s rookie driver had already notched up two penalty points for his collision with Romain Grosjean in Monaco and another three for driving too fast during a safety car period in Hungary.
In Abu Dhabi, he went into the run-off in the complex at the end of the Yas Marina track’s first long straight while overtaking Jenson Button’s McLaren for 12th late on.
Stewards gave Verstappen a five-second time penalty and one penalty point for “leaving the track and gaining an advantage” in that incident.
He then had a further 20s added to his race time and was given another two penalty points when the officials judged that he had ignored blue flags for a lap while second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton was trying to lap him.
The combined punishments dropped him from 12th to 16th in the results and took Verstappen’s penalty point tally to eight – with a race ban triggered if a driver reaches 12 in a 12-month period.
Before the penalty points were imposed, Verstappen said he concluded during the Button incident that his best option was to just try to pull away.
“We touched wheels, I ran wide. But I was clearly faster so I just continued,” he said.
“I opened the gap more than five seconds. It doesn’t matter.
“If you finish 12th or 16th it doesn’t matter because you don’t score points.”
He was also puzzled that his driving when being lapped by Hamilton was under the spotlight.
“I don’t know why it’s under investigation,” said Verstappen.
“It’s happened many times before where it was that close – for me it was not even that close.”
Source: Autosport.com