Mercedes to analyse concerning drop in performance from Lewis Hamilton

Abu Dhabi: Nico Rosberg ended his 2015 season in triumph on Sunday when he completed a hat-trick of victories in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix ahead of his Mercedes team-mate and world champion Lewis Hamilton.

“If Mercedes retain the leadership that you nearly expect from Mercedes, I’m afraid you could be finding the same thing, but don’t count out Rosberg”, Stewart is quoted as saying by the Press Association when asked if Hamilton could win a fourth title next year.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director said, “As usual, Abu Dhabi delivered another very tactical race, during which Mercedes and Nico Rosberg in particular controlled the strategy perfectly”. It could start tomorrow for me. “We’re aware of the threat of Ferrari and I will try and keep it going”.

“(It’s) too late for the championship of course, but so great now to have it (the win) and that’s it. I can’t tell you about next year unfortunately, but I’ll give it everything”. The German was the quicker in the early stages, after converting pole position into the lead at the start, on the softer Pirelli tyre compound available, but once both cars had moved onto the harder compound, it was Hamilton who was faster as he pulled back a deficit of 7.1 seconds to 1.3. “I think that in the end for Lewis the title mattered and I honestly also have to say that these last couple of races were great driving from Nico’s side”.

While Kimi Raikkonen of Finland representing Ferrari was at the third position, Force India drivers- Sergio Perez (Mexico) and Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) were at the fifth and seventh position respectively. Thanks so much to my team for this wonderful Silver Arrow – everyone at the factories and the track has done such an incredible job all year. “I think being a world champion sounds a lot better than winning a race, obviously”, said the Briton, who thinks the about-turn in fortunes has more to do with a recent vehicle set-up change. “I’ll go away now for the winter aiming to come back stronger, fitter and straight on top of our new auto for 2016”.

By the time Hamilton pitted, at the start of Lap 41, Rosberg had made his final stop on Lap 31, and the gap was 12 seconds. I am so happy that I found some performance at the end of the season. “At the end of the day, the gap was way too big”.

“I lost quite a lot of time at the beginning and then kept playing catch up until the end”.

But Wolff, Mercedes’ joint team boss, said: “I wouldn’t say it’s the most likely suspicion”. As Williams’ Valterri Bottas was coming out of the pits, he clipped an incoming Jenson Button of McLaren, which saw the Finn get slapped with a five-second penalty for his indiscretion.

Of the rest, Fernando Alonso was 17th, caught up in an incident at the start with Pastor Maldonado and Nasr.