While looking dominant throughout the year, Mercedes isn’t the only team flying high towards a 2016 filled with even more question marks than this past one.
The events in Yas Marina unfolded rather predictably on Sunday. Mercedes had both cars in front of the grid and that’s exactly how they kept it until their drivers crossed the finish line. Rosberg dominated from the get go, with Hamilton unable to pose any real threat, despite trying to stay out longer on his first stint.
After heading into the pits on lap 41, Hamilton came out flying and closed in on his teammate with around 6.8 seconds between them. By the end of the race, Rosberg would increase his lead and win the 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, securing his sixth overall win of the season and also third consecutive win.
The action that took place behind the Silver Arrows wasn’t as spectacular as we would have hoped – nevertheless Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen secured P3, with his teammate coming in fourth after starting near the back of the field.
Force India showed really good pace, with both Perez and Hulkenberg concluding the day P5 and P7 respectively, only separated by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who was very pleased with his P6 finish considering the nature of the Yas Marina circuit.
Williams’ Felipe Massa hung on during the later part of the race to secure P8 ahead of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, in his final race for the team before joining Haas F1 next year, while Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10 despite encountering electronic problems.
Toro Rosso ran a good race during the initial part, but eventually had to deal with numerous problems which we’ll be discussing shortly.
Before that, let’s touch on the fact that despite this being yet another perfect year for Mercedes (or nearly perfect), teams such as Ferrari and Force India should feel really good about themselves. Same can be said about certain young drivers such as Kvyat, Verstappen, Sainz and Nasr – arguably the four breakout stars of 2015.
That being said, we can’t wait for next year, especially since we’ll soon find out the name and origin of Red Bull’s new engine, confirmation of Renault’s takeover of Lotus, and what the 2016 grid will look like in terms of aesthetics (design & liveries), which will mostly happen towards the end of January.
10 Remarks About the Abu Dhabi GP
– In retrospect, Yas Marina seems like a perfect track for a two stop strategy doesn’t it? Pirelli definitely needs to make those soft compounds last longer next year.
– 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.
– Wow, unsafe release by Williams as Bottas clips Button in the pit lane. That’s either unacceptable or borderline unacceptable – depends on your point of view. For neutral spectators, it’s just part of the show.
– Daniil Kvyat just executed a super-bold move on Ericsson in a very tight turn, which is exactly what we want to see from the young Russian driver, and is also one of the best maneuvers of the race.
– Again we need to applaud Force India for their amazing package. In fact, it’s been their B-Spec car that’s looked almost dominant in the second part of the season.
– Now, regarding Toro Rosso, they had tremendous bad luck in Abu Dhabi. While Verstappen delighted the crowd during certain sectors, he made a mistake shortly after passing his teammate and needed to replace his badly flat-spotted tires. What followed was a 5-second penalty for exceeding the track limits and then another 20-second penalty for slowing down Hamilton in the closing laps. He eventually finished 16th.
– The fact that Verstappen got by Sainz fair and square in a way characterizes their relationship. Remember the Alonso & Massa dynamic from their Ferrari days? In way, that’s what we’re seeing from the two very impressive Toro Rosso rookies.
– Despite a painfully mediocre race from Williams, their car easily pulled away from the Red Bulls on the straights, even if the latter was using DRS. That type of performance gap between engines needs to go.
– Even though Alonso had a bad grand prix, McLaren’s Jenson Button was quite satisfied with his performance, finishing 12th while being able to fight other cars around him throughout the day.
– Sauber’s Felipe Nasr might have finished better than P15, had he not damaged his nose in the very first corner of lap 1. He’s definitely one to watch heading into 2016.
Yas Marina Race Results
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
5. Sergio Perez, Force India
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
8. Felipe Massa, Williams
9. Romain Grosjean, Lotus
10. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull
11. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
12. Jenson Button, McLaren
13. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
14. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
15. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
16. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso
17. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
18. Alex Rossi, Marussia
19. Roberto Merhi, Marussia