Mercedes to bide time over Hamilton

Teammate Nico Rosberg duly won the world championship by finishing second to his British teammate, but the German said he endured a “horrible” race at Yas Marina.

He also became Germany’s third champion.The tension was palpable as they climbed from their cars to go to the podium after the race in which Vettel finished third for Ferrari ahead of Dutchman Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

In the end neither Vettel nor Verstappen could.

Knowing a win alone will not do, Hamilton rode a near-perfect race, but, as expected, Rosberg was cool and calm right behind his Mercedes teammate.

Born to 1982 Formula 1 champion Keke Rosberg and his wife Sina, Nico started racing at a very early age.

“Yeh, I’m looking forward to it and I’ll go in there with a tequila”, he said, as the Mercedes team party began all around him. My dad and my mum are such a big part of this. It is massive. It is good how he is letting me get on with it.

“Lewis looked like he was hanging back waiting for him so the fact that Max was able to get to lap 21 on the super-soft tyre, from that point it looked like a one-stop was the plan”.

Rosberg appeared to be fighting against emotional collapse throughout the press conference. I want to thank you #TeamLH so much for your support this year, and every year. “It’s a family sport and he knows what it means to me and to him”. “It was so intense”. There was never a moment that I felt that I was going to lose the race.

Rosberg did not blame Hamilton for his backing-up tactics.

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said “It’s very simple: anarchy does not work in any team and in any company”. “If I had been here for three days doing nothing, there wouldn’t have been a peaceful minute for me”. And just five points in it at the end, that’s unbelievable. “There was no way, he did it in a flawless way”. Nico Rosberg said he had not decided whether to take the number one on his auto as is his right next year or whether to stick with the number six, which he chose as his race number because his father Keke won the 1982 world title with it.

“I’m sure the next few days will be pretty insane, but I look forward to that – it’s going to be special”.

“Today, Nico is world champion and is a deserved world champion”.

“I’m sure it’s going to be pretty insane now and for the next few days”.

“Tonight’s going to be absolutely nuts”, he said.

When asked if it was hard to watch the last stint, he replied: “I would say so, yes, it was relatively easy, until the last two laps I thought that we would see something we wouldn’t want to see in the last two laps but luckily it wasn’t to be”.