F1 | Rosberg beats Hamilton to win Abu Dhabi GP

Nico Rosberg has brought the curtain down on the 2015 Formula 1 World Championship season with his third successive win, ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who finished in second place and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who came third.

McLaren are enduring their worst ever season, ninth out of 10 teams and without a win since 2012, while Hamilton has enjoyed another dominant year with 10 wins and his third championship.

Rosberg started from pole and pushed his lead over Hamilton out to 4.7 seconds before the first set of pit stops.

“Austin (in Texas) was a tough weekend and since then I’ve just come back a lot stronger”, said Rosberg from the podium, after spraying the sparkling rosewater used instead of the usual champagne. Next season can start tomorrow for me! Nico Rosberg made a thundering start as Lewis Hamilton was content with battling Raikkonen for the second and third place.

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 soft tires, leaving him with a 12.5 seconds deficit. The tyres were fine, so I honestly felt I could have taken them to the end, but that didn’t work. “I am sure the team will give us a great auto once again”.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso’s post-race rant at the inconsistency — and ineffectiveness – of the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), summed up his season and the views of many after a year in which his team McLaren-Honda endured endless failings and disappointments.

“I’m feeling very happy”, beamed Rosberg, whose recent performances have belied those he gave earlier in the season, suddenly giving voice to the suggestion that he may provide a much sterner challenge in 2016.

– A couple of awesome dogfights during the first three laps of the race, followed by Ricciardo passing Hulkenberg on lap 6, which goes to show how good that Red Bull is under braking.

But while the Spaniard said ahead of Sunday’s race that he will be on the grid next year his mind appeared to be elsewhere on the run down to turn one after going in too deep and crashing into the side of Pastor Maldonado. At the end [of the race], it would have been 15 laps to go.

The victorious German said he would not be giving a Christmas present to the world champion who lives across the corridor in Monte Carlo.

“We started better this season but it’s not been an ideal year”, said Raikkonen.

Marcus Ericsson led Sauber team mate Felipe Nasr home for 14th, as Verstappen dropped from 12th on the road to 16th after stewards added a further 20s to his race time for ignoring blue flags late on. I really have to take my hat off to this team. “This is a poor way to end the season”.

“But I think we had a reasonably good speed, they didn’t really pull away a lot from us. We will all now have a well-deserved break with our families and I look forward to spending some more time with my wife and my little daughter”.