Posted on 30th November 2015
At the Abu Dhabi GP yesterday afternoon, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the final race of the 2015 Formula One Championship and his third consecutive win in a row ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen after both the Mercedes drivers battled with each other throughout the session.
At the start, Nico Rosberg got a great start as Lewis Hamilton fended off Sergio Perez. As we got into Turn 1, Pastor Maldonado officially retired from the race after colliding with the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso who was able to continue the race; albeit far behind the pack.
Carlos Sainz Jr has had a great start and was able to pass Daniil Kvyat. In the next few corners, there were cars everywhere and Sebastian Vettel by Turn 9 was in eleventh place. By Lap 2, Rosberg lead his team mate Hamilton by 1.4 seconds.
In the early laps of the race, there was a battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo for fifth place. At the chicane, Kvyat was able to pass Bottas for position. We also saw Felipe Massa passing Carlos Sainz Jr for seventh place. The battle between Bottas and Kvyat continued and Kvyat was able to stay ahead of the Finnish driver as Felipe Nasr and Romain Grosjean battled for fourteenth place; with Grosjean winning the battle.
At the end of Lap 5, Daniil Kvyat was the first man to pit for new tyres hoping that this would trigger everyone to start pitting earlier than they would like. Lap 6 saw the stewards announce that Maldonado and Alonso would be investigated for causing a collision at the first corner on the first lap of the race. On track, Daniel Ricciardo was finally able to pass Nico Hulkenberg for fifth place as Hulkenberg tried to defend himself.
It was then announced by the stewards that Alonso would receive a drive through penalty for his part in causing the collision with Maldonado; which I think was very unfair; given the fact that Felipe Nasr had a big part in this.
As Bottas pitted at the end of the Lap 8 for new tyres and was released by the Williams team, he made contact with Jenson Button who was coming into the pits also to get new tyres and he damaged his front wing. This incident would now be investigated by the stewards and he received on Lap 12 a five second time penalty for an unsafe release.
Hamilton did have the lead of the race on Lap 11 after his team mate Rosberg pitted for new tyres but Rosberg regained the lead on Lap 12 after Hamilton also had to pit for new tyres .
Lap 14 saw Hamilton passing Vettel for second place in the race with a good move which saw him having to get onto the marbles.
In the first half of the race, we saw some great battles on the track between Sainz Jr and Bottas for fifth place, Hulkenberg and Massa for twelfth place before the pitstops and then after the first stops; Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Massa for eighth place and Grosjean and Perez having a great battle for fifth place; which Perez won in the end. We also saw Daniel Ricciardo in a great move passing the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson on Lap 12 for seventh place; with Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat following suit very quickly.
There was also a great battle for eleventh between Marcus Ericsson, Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen which grabbed our attention as well as the battle between Kimi Raikkonen and his team mate Sebastian Vettel for third place; which Raikkonen was able to win. We then saw Hulkenberg, Massa and Kvyat battle each other for eighth place.
In the second half of the race, Rosberg still lead from Hamilton by 1.5 seconds on Lap 29 as Sergio Perez found himself under pressure from Daniel Ricciardo for position on the track. As Raikkonen pitted at the end of Lap 32, he suffered a slow pit stop which helped his team mate gain a position on him and they battled once again for third place in the race.
We saw some great battles on the track between Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Kvyat for seventh place and also with the Toro Rosso drivers for position. By Lap 40, a battle between Perez, Ricciardo and Vettel for fourth place was ongoing on the track. By the next lap, Vettel had passed Ricciardo in a good move for fifth place and was trying to catch Perez in fourth place.
In the last ten laps of the race, we saw both Sauber drivers battling each other on the track for position, Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Massa battling for seventh place. At this stage, Rosberg was still leading Hamilton by 10.6 seconds as Vettel was catching Pere for fourth place; with the gap as close as 0.5 seconds and by Lap 45 Vettel on the back straight was able to pass the Force India with a good move.
The battle for twelfth saw Verstappen and Button battling each other for twelfth; but Verstappen was able to retain his position ahead of the McLaren-Honda driver. The stewards were investigating the incident between the two drivers with Verstappen receiving a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
In the last three laps of the race, Grosjean finally passed Sainz Jr for the final point of the race and the battle for ninth place continued until the chequered flag. But Grosjean was able to pass Kvyat for ninth place on Lap 54 in his final race for the Lotus team as Bottas was catching Button for thirteenth place.
But it was Nico Rosberg who won his sixth race of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.377 seconds behind him but ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who finished in third place (his best of the season) 0.814 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg.
Sebastian Vettel finished the race in fourth place ahead of Sergio Perez in fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place and Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place. Felipe Massa ended the race in eighth place ahead of Romain Grosjean in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who rounds off the top ten finishers.
Carlos Sainz Jr ended the race in eleventh place ahead of Jenson Button in twelfth place, Valtteri Bottas in thirteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in fourteenth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in fifteenth.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Max Verstappen finished in sixteenth place ahead of Fernando Alonso in seventeenth place, Will Stevens in eighteenth place and Roberto Merhi in nineteenth place. Pastor Maldonado did not finish the race.
The classification for the Abu Dhabi GP is as follows:-
1.Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.38:30.175
2.Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 8.271s
3.Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 19.430s
4.Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 43.735s
5.Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.03.952s
6.Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.05.010s
7.Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.33.618s
8.Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.37.751s
9.Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.38.201s
10.Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.42.371s
11.Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.43.525s
12.Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1lap
13.Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1lap
14.Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
15.Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
16.Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1lap
17.Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1lap
18.Will Stevens, Manor, 2 laps
19.Roberto Merhi, Manor, 2 laps
20.Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, Not Classified
Lewis Hamilton has won the Drivers' Championship with 381 points, Rosberg is second with 322 points, Vettel is third with 278 points, Raikkonen is fourth with 150 points, Bottas is fifth with 136 points, Massa is sixth with 121 points, Kvyat is seventh with 95 points, Ricciardo is eighth with 92 points, Perez is ninth with 78 points and Hulkenberg is tenth with 58 points.
Mercedes have won the Constructors Championship with 703 points, Ferrari is second with 428 points, Williams are third with 257 points, Red Bull are fourth with 187 points, Force India are fifth with 136 points, Lotus are sixth with 78 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 67 points, Sauber are eighth with 36 points and McLaren-Honda are ninth with 27 points.
Driving for Pleasure will be covering the pre-season test at the Abu Dhabi circuit this week as well as reporting the latest news in the off season and producing season reviews for each team during December.
Thank you to Driving for Pleasure for another enjoyable season of writing their F1 coverage. It's been a great year and I hope to enjoy another great season of covering the sport in 2016.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
Thanks to Graham and Leigh for their contribution to our coverage too
