So Nico Rosberg clung on to finish second in Abu Dhabi and secure his first F1 world title. Lewis Hamilton’s next task will be to explain his tactics to Mercedes, though it did make for a far more interesting finale so perhaps we should thank him. Outside the Mercedes bubble, Sebastian Vettel sealed fourth in the championship and Force India took fourth in the constructors’ race, while Jenson Button and Felipe Massa waved goodbye to the sport. That’s all from me, you can read our race report right below. Bye!
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Drivers' championship (top eight)
Rosberg 385
Hamilton 380
Ricciardo 256
Vettel 212
Verstappen 204
Raikkonen 186
Perez 101
Bottas 85
Mercedes’ Paddy Lowe, whose instructions Lewis Hamilton ignored: “To come through three amazing seasons, I think it’s nice and balanced that both guys have got a world championship under their belt. I don’t want to comment too much [on Hamilton’s tactics]. We weren’t driving the car, we don’t know how fast it was, but it did present some challenges. It was great to see Sebastian coming through which was a very good strategy from Ferrari. It was nail-biting for us on the pitwall, those final two laps. You don’t often see four cars crossing the line so close together.”
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Nico Rosberg speaks! “That was definitely not the most enjoyable race, with Max at the beginning and then those guys coming up at the end. I’m glad it’s over, I’m ecstatic. I’m very, very proud to have done the feat that my dad achieved. It will be exciting to see him.”
Lewis Hamilton chats about himself winning races before remembering to congratulate Rosberg on his achievement. They share an awkward handshake, which David Coulthard makes them reenact for reasons which are not obvious.
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Hamilton and Rosberg share a podium but not a conversation or even a handshake, it seems. David Coulthard steps up for a bit of interview chat.
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Abu Dhabi GP top 10
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Vettel
4 Verstappen
5 Ricciardo
6 Raikkonen
7 Hülkenberg
8 Pérez
9 Massa
10 Alonso
Rosberg spins a few donuts on the pit-straight before diving into his team of mechanics for a spot of crowd-surfing. On seeing Bernie Ecclestone he launches the F1 chief into the air, who looks utterly unimpressed with that.
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Here’s our initial race report:
Mercedes’ Niki Lauda: “We need to speak to [Lewis] to give him an explanation. We tried to tell him, but he said ‘Leave me alone I know what I’m doing’ and thank God it worked out. I think it could have been done easier.” To put Lewis Hamilton’s tactics into perspective, his final lap was nine seconds slower than his fastest qualifying lap.
Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi GP win is his 10th of the season, the most any driver has picked up in a single year without winning the world title.
“We did it!” Rosberg cheers over team radio. He had to keep his cool as Hamilton turned up the pressure in the only way he could, backing Rosberg up against his team’s wishes, but a nervy second place was enough to seal the title by five points.
Nico Rosberg wins his first F1 world title!
Lewis Hamilton wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but Rosberg follows him through to win the drivers’ world championship, matching his father’s achievement 34 years ago.
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Final lap Vettel starts the last lap with another attack but he can’t make it stick and Nico Rosberg is going to hold to win his maiden world championship, despite his team-mate’s best efforts.
Lap 54/55 Hamilton to Mercedes: “Right now I’m losing the world championship so I’m not really bothered if I’m going to lose this race.” Vettel takes a look down the inside of Rosberg but can’t get through. Rosberg isn’t going to thank his team-mate for this.
Lap 53/55 Barely a second between Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel in P1, 2 and 3 as the trio sweep around Yas Marina together. Rosberg will be the world champion even if he lets Vettel through – Verstappen is a further second back.
Mercedes’ Paddy Lowe instructs Hamilton: “Pick up the pace to win the race.”
Hamilton: “I’m actually in the lead right now. I’m quite comfortable.”
Lap 52/55 A brilliant move by Vettel who hurls his Ferrari around Verstappen’s Red Bull where there seemed no space to do so. He’s third and he is closing in on Rosberg’s rear wing. This isn’t over just yet, though remember Rosberg only needs to finish on the podium.
Lap 51/55 Verstappen is digging in and refusing to let Vettel pass. “Consider doing something?” suggests Rosberg to Mercedes up ahead, but Hamilton answers to no one at this point.
Lap 50/55 Shockingly it doesn’t appear Hamilton is going to let Rosberg through. Behind them, Vettel is trying to attack Verstappen and move into third but the Red Bull is not giving in easily.
Lap 49/55 This is even more interesting: Rosberg has requested over team radio that Mercedes instruct Hamilton to let him through, saying he would cede the lead back to Hamilton at the end of the race if they were in the clear. Rosberg is not happy with just how slowly Hamilton is taking it, creating pressure from behind with Verstappen and Vettel closing in.
Mercedes to Hamilton: “OK Lewis, this is an instruction: you need a 45.1 for the win.”
Hamilton to Mercedes: “I suggest you let us race.”
Lap 47/55 Vettel fires around the outside and almost collides with the front wing of Ricciardo as he completes the pass. Vettel is fourth and is around 6sec off the front of the race, with Hamilton slowing down significantly to back Rosberg into the pack. Interesting.
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Lap 46/55 Hamilton is warned on team radio: “Vettel is an imminent threat,” after the Ferrari set a new fastest lap on his fresh-ish set of soft tyres. Considering how comfortable Rosberg has been so far, Hamilton will be relieved to hear that there is finally some pressure on his team-mate.
Lap 44/55 Palmer pits and is under investigation for that incident which looked pretty careless on replay.
Lap 43/55 Rosberg is 12 uneventful laps from winning his first F1 world title. There is an event at the back, courtesy of Jolyon Palmer who nudges the back of Carlos Sainz and sends the Toro Rosso spinning.
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Lap 42/55 Ferrari give Raikkonen the nod to let Vettel through into fifth, and that will help the German to secure fourth in the world championship ahead of Verstappen. “You need to give me the times of other cars please,” says Hamilton on team radio.
Lap 40/55 Vettel’s stop restores Hamilton’s place at the front of the race with Rosberg 1.2sec behind him. A Mercedes one-two will win Rosberg the world championship by five points.
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Lap 39/55 Suddenly some chaos, firstly on the track as Ocon collides clumsily with Nasr at the back of the pack, sending debris into the air which Palmer butts off track with his nose cone. Then in the pits, where Vettel has a scruffy stop and various Ferrari mechanics throw red arms into the air in frustration. He returns in sixth.
Lap 37/55 “These tyres are really starting to go now,” says Vettel. The race leader is 5.5sec clear of Hamilton and sounds about ready to make his second stop. Rosberg remains trailing his team-mate by around 1.5sec.
Lap 35/55 Alonso sees another Force India boom past as Sergio Pérez pushes the McLaren back to ninth.
Lap 34/55 Hülkenberg screams past Alonso at turn one with some late braking to pinch seventh.
Lap 33/55 Vettel currently leads Hamilton by 7sec, and Rosberg by 8sec, with the Ferrari driver still to make his second pit stop. This is all going to plan for Nico Rosberg.
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Jenson Button speaks from the paddock: “I enjoyed today massively, the race was short but I enjoyed it. I’ll miss driving the car, and the team spirit, and I’ll have to find it elsewhere. People will say ‘oh it’s so sad Jenson didn’t finish on a high’ but it’s not. I’m happy.”
Lap 30/55 What should be Rosberg’s last stop of the season is perfectly executed by the Mercedes mechanics, and critically he returns well ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo.
Lap 29/55 It’s a routine 2.5sec stop for Hamilton, and momentarily Rosberg leads the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix until the German is called in by Mercedes at the end of the lap...
Lap 28/55 Pérez comes in for his second stop, and the Mercedes mechanics are prepping for a stop of their own – in comes Hamilton.
Lap 27/55 Ferrari react quickly to that pit stop but the undercut has worked beautifully for Ricciardo. Raikkonen pits and returns just behind the Australian’s Red Bull, and at the same time Verstappen skips past Pérez into fourth. Two key moves for the Red Bulls.
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Lap 25/55 Hamilton is more than 4sec ahead of his team-mate, but crucially Rosberg has opened up a big lead over Raikkonen of around 7sec. Just as things are settling down, Ricciardo makes an early move for his second stop. He puts on the yellow-rimmed soft tyres and will run to the end.
Top 10 (after 24 laps)
1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg
3 Raikkonen
4 Ricciardo
5 Vettel
6 Hülkenberg
7 Pérez
8 Verstappen
9 Massa
10 Alonso
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Lap 22/55 Verstappen pits and returns eighth. Rosberg is told that Red Bull are planning a one-stop strategy for the Dutch driver, which means he could yet play another part at the top of this race.
Lap 20/55 Ricciardo tries to make a move on Raikkonen, but he runs wide and almost gives up fifth place to Vettel behind him. Up ahead Rosberg takes on Verstappen and when at first he doesn’t succeed, he comes back for more using DRS to get around the outside and fend off the young Red Bull driver! That was a brilliant move which carried an awful lot of risk.
Lap 19/55 Hamilton is around 3sec clear of Verstappen at the front of this race and it is his to win, with Rosberg still third – enough for the world championship – and Raikkonen fourth.
Maybe @Max33Verstappen is thinking about a one-stop race. Not the quickest way, but could that work out tactically for @redbullracing?
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) November 27, 2016
Lap 17/55 Kvyat’s Toro Rosso is cleared away and that brings to an end a pretty miserable year for the Russian who started with Red Bull and suffered a mid-season demotion. It’s a sorry sight as he is handed a bicycle to ride back to the garage.
Lap 16/55 Daniil Kvyat looks to be in trouble here, slowly creeping across the pit straight. He pulls over and stops on the side of the track, bringing out yellow flags, and his race is over.
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Lap 15/55 Annoyingly for Rosberg, Verstappen is still refusing to pit and is holding the championship leader back in third. Hamilton meanwhile is coasting – he does not want to get too far ahead where he cannot influence the race.
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Jenson Button retires from the race...
... And by extension from Formula One. He gets a huge ovation as he takes his car back to the paddock and gives a big wave to the grandstand.
Lap 13/55 Jenson Button is on the grass! “Something feels a bit wrong with the steering. Yeah, we’ve got a failure guys.”
Mercedes to Rosberg on team radio: “Don’t take any risks with Verstappen, you’re doing the right thing.”
Lap 12/55 Rosberg, now third, attacks Verstappen (who is yet to pit) around the outside but cannot get by. This is so frustrating for Rosberg who is being deliberately held up by the Red Bull in order to help his team-mate Ricciardo stay in touch. Hamilton is a couple of seconds clear at the front of the race.
Lap 10/55 Ricciardo stops and returns almost wheel to wheel with Raikkonen swinging into two of the fastest turns on the circuit. The Ferrari defends aggressively and holds his position, managing to keep Ricciardo at bay.
Lap 9/55 Another Ferrari, this time Sebastian Vettel, holds up Rosberg in the pitlane! He is released just in front of Raikkonen who is now right on the German’s tail. That could have been a huge turning point had Rosberg been held half a second longer.
Lap 8/55 Kevin Magnussen has retired from the race. Lewis Hamilton comes in for his opening stop – and he is held up momentarily by a sluggish Ferrari stop where Kimi Raikkonen was pitting. Rosberg is coming in next lap...
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Lap 7/55 What is great about Verstappen’s spin on the opening lap is that for the second week in succession we will get to enjoy the teenager tearing through the field. He passes Daniil Kvyat and then Jenson Button, and has already climbed from the back of the grid to 11th. The Red Bulls are on supersoft tyres rather than ultrasofts like much of the rest of the grid which should afford him a longer opening stint.
Lap 5/55 Hamilton leads Rosberg by more than a second ahead, taking him safely out of DRS range – but Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Vettel are all within three seconds of the championship leader.
Lap 4/55 Hülkenberg and Pérez have been going at each other with everything they’ve got to raise heart rates in their Force India team garage. Hülkenberg had lost but has now retaken sixth from his team-mate.
Lap 2/55 Hamilton leads Rosberg by half a second at the end of the opening two laps. Crucially though Rosberg has retained second place while Raikkonen jumped Ricciardo to take third and Vettel is fifth.
Verstappen is the driver who was sent spinning into the first corner! His race isn’t over but the Red Bull driver is at the back of the pack.
Lights out!
No backing up from Hamilton, he powers to the first corner and leads Rosberg round in second! But there’s an incident in the middle of the pack...
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The formation lap gets under way in 30 degree heat as the sun begins to set in the UAE. Thousands of smartphones are out in force in the grandstand along the start-finish straight to capture this one – apparently seeing isn’t good enough anymore. Anyway, here we go...
The grid!
Five minutes until lights out in Abu Dhabi when 55 laps around the Yas Marina Circuit will decide the 2016 world championship. Here is how they lineup:
1 Hamilton Mercedes 2 Rosberg Mercedes
3 Ricciardo Red Bull 4 Raikkonen Ferrari
5 Vettel Ferrari 6 Verstappen Red Bull
7 Hülkenberg Force India 8 Pérez Force India
9 Alonso McLaren 10 Massa Williams
11 Bottas Williams 12 Button McLaren
13 Gutiérrez Haas 14 Grosjean Haas
15 Palmer Renault 16 Wehrlein Manor
17 Kvyat Toro Rosso 18 Magnussen Renault
19 Nasr Sauber 20 Ocon Manor
21 Sainz Toro Rosso 22 Ericsson Sauber
Permutations
Put simply, Rosberg needs to finish on the podium to win the world championship, but here are the details if things get tricky:
Rosberg will win the title if...
- He finishes on the podium
- He finishes sixth or higher, and Hamilton doesn’t win
- He finishes eighth or higher, and Hamilton is no higher than third
- Hamilton finishes fourth or lower
Hamilton will win the title if...
- He triumphs, and Rosberg is fourth or lower
- He finishes second, and Rosberg finishes outside the top six
- He finishes third, and Rosberg finishes outside the top eight
In the case of a tie it, Rosberg would win the title due to his greater number of second-place finishes this season (they’ve won the same number of races, nine).
Brundle doorsteps Mercedes’ Toto Wolff: “If it’s bunching up [off the start] then there’s more chance of Lewis losing the race, and he needs to win the race to become world champion.”
Niki Lauda tips Nico Rosberg to win the title: “Lewis will win [the race] if nothing goes wrong, and then Nico can be second or third.”
Martin Brundle is on the grid...
Answer!
It’s Jenson Button with a career haul of 1,235 points beating Felipe Massa’s total of 1,112. Great to know.
Quiz question
Who has won more championship points over their career, Massa or Button?
Felipe Massa joins Button as the other veteran driver hanging up his gloves. Two great competitors and fine ambassadors for the sport:
Not a dry eye in the house last night as @WilliamsRacing said goodbye to @MassaFelipe19 😢 #AbuDhabiGP #ObrigadoFelipe pic.twitter.com/4wHKY9A3EI
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 27, 2016
Jenson Button gets a guard of honour on his way to the garage from the McLaren mechanics and staff and he is landing high fives, hugs, the works. The 36-year-old is loving it. “A slightly different entrance to normal, it feels amazing. It feels almost as good as winning the world championship. The problem is I’ve got go and do a race now.” He all but confirms on camera that this is going to be his last F1 race despite the lack of an official retirement announcement and his slightly peculiar arrangement next season.
Daniel Ricciardo, who starts third: “I’ve got to focus on a good start and hopefully I can make up a place or two. I think we can have a good race and try and make it more than just a two-way race at the front.”
Mercedes director Toto Wolff speaks: “Today is about crowning a new world champion … or an old world champion. There’s a risk if you were to back-up at the start, there’s a risk of an undercut and they could be losing the race. We have talked through the scenarios but when the visa comes down, the red mist comes in and we can’t control [the drivers].”
It’s not all glory and partying for the winner, however. “The championship winner needs to jump on a plane with me to Kuala Lumpur at 9am on Monday for commitments with Petronas, and then fly back to Stuttgart on Tuesday.” Urgh.
Lewis Hamilton speaks! And it is suitably profound: “I felt amazing when I woke up this morning, but I have won on days when I have felt bad and on days when I have felt good. I woke up and looked out over the sea where I’m staying and felt blessed to have another beautiful day.”
Preamble
Lewis Hamilton begins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on pole and as favourite to win what could turn out to be the most hollow triumph of his career. Nico Rosberg starts second and his task is straightforward: finish on the podium and he will become the Formula One world champion.
Just how straightforward his ride around the Yas Marina Circuit is today will depend an awful lot on Hamilton. The Briton’s win-at-all costs instincts will consider whether to apply some strategic braking into the first corner to create a little chaos and bring the Red Bulls and Ferraris into the race. He would join Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost on four world titles should he triumph this year, and the latter certainly wasn’t afraid to take drastic measures to achieve that haul.
For Hamilton’s fans it must be tempting to wonder what might have been this season. Technical problems wrecked his races in China, Belgium, Russia and most crucially Malaysia 15 laps from home, while clutch issues off the grid hurt his chances in Bahrain, Canada, Italy and Japan. Hamilton could win his 10th grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi and yet still finish without the world title so it is perhaps unsurprising that, in Trump-esque style, he may not accept the result. “Maybe I should keep this private to myself, but I feel a certain way in my heart, how I have performed. And if [Rosberg] is labelled the world champion it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the way it is in my heart.”
But there have been several weekends when Rosberg has simply been quickest, notably in Singapore and Baku, and he will be a worthy champion should he finish the job. He may never get a better chance to land a such a winning blow in their 20-year rivalry, a rivalry which, ironically, is probably just a Rosberg world title away from being placed alongside the greatest F1 duels which Hamilton has always admired.
It is all not all about Hamilton and Rosberg in Abu Dhabi of course. Further down the grid, Felipe Massa will drive his final Formula One race and it almost certainly Jenson Button’s final foray too, while Force India can wrap up the title of best of the rest ahead of Williams by taking fourth in the constructors’ championship. But the headlines will be all about Mercedes as the latest chapter of Hamilton v Rosberg comes to a close. Rosberg leads by 12 points, but it is not over quite yet.
Lights out: 5pm in Abu Dhabi, 1pm GMT
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