ABU DHABI GP – Hamilton takes victory, but Rosberg delivers what he needed to be champion!
Lewis Hamilton has taken victory but lost his world title to team-mate Nico Rosberg after an intensive, action packed season finale in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A fine performance from Hamilton wasn’t enough for him after trying to back him up into the Ferrari’s to retain his title.
But for Rosberg it was a well-earned second place after not responding to the pressure that his team-mate tried to back him into so the Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s so he could retain his crown. But Rosberg responded by doing enough as Sebastian Vettel tried to pass him, but finished third.
Rosberg title comes twenty years after Damon Hill achieved the same achievement become the first son of a champion to win the championship with the same gap as Damon had to his father of thirty-four years. Hill tweeted “Welcome @nico_rosberg . World Champ. Congrats to Keke and the Rosbergs!! #F1 #AbuDhabiGP”
But the race victory for Hamilton came against the team, who instructed him not to back his team-mate up into the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in a desperate bid to get a result which would have seen him retain his crown.
Hamilton said ” I did everything I could these last four races. That’s all I can really ask of myself. I’ll leave here and have a lot of fun tonight, celebrating with the team and everyone. You can’t win them all.”
Rosberg said “That was definitely not the most enjoyable race I’ve ever had. With Max at the beginning and then with those guys coming up at the end, really not very enjoyable those last laps. I’m glad it’s over, and I am ecstatic.”
Vettel looked in strong for as he was trying to catch and tried to fight own battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Vettel was running fifth and proved to be a treat to the Red Bull’s after he had a good middle snit on the supersoft for his last stint but they were durable to the others around him.
Verstappen was hit by the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg at the start which could off meant the title could have sung the other way. This was why the chain of events started allowing the Dutch teenager to come back into play.
Daniel Ricciardo was fifth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. While everyone’s eyes focused on the title race, there was another championship position to be decided which was key and worth millions for Force India and Williams. But the position was handed to them as Felipe Massa finished behind both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were seventh and eight respectively.
Massa had been fighting with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso took the final point, the Brazilian managed to hold off his former colleague. With friend and engineer Rob Smedley praised him on the radio afterwards, saying he had done a “great drive”.
While Jenson Buttons ‘final’ race ended in retirement. Button was forced to retire after he hit a kerb at Turn 10 hard, causing damage to the steering and forcing him out.
Button told BBC News “The result doesn’t count. The weekend does. It has been awesome, from the fans, to before the race, a load of the team lined up and I walked between them and they clapped me into the garage. Very emotional, not the easiest thing before grand prix. An amazing day and an amazing weekend.”
Toro Rosso’s horrendous weekend ended in a double retirement with Carlos Sainz with a gearbox problem, moments after he was hit by Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, while his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat also failed to finish. Palmer was handed a penalty after a collision with Sainz
Romain Grosjean finished ahead of team-mate Esteban Gutiérrez in their battle, While the Manors fight wasn’t that clean as Esteban Ocon made contact with Manor team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.
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