The FIA Formula One World Championship came down to the wire this year, with the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg duking it out for top honors all season. But while defending champ Hamilton took the checkered flag in the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend, it was Rosberg who was crowned champion.
That was anything but assured when Hamilton took pole position in qualifying on Saturday, with Rosberg starting alongside him on P2. Lewis lead his teammate and the rest of the field away from the start line, and pulled a typical command performance to take the checkered flag 55 laps later.
But with a 12-point lead heading into the season finale, Rosberg only needed to finish third or higher to seal the deal. And seal it he did. Despite a stiff challenge posed by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Rosberg finished second. That was enough to put him five points ahead of his teammate and closest rival to take the title – marking the closest fight since Vettel beat Alonso to the 2012 championship by only three points.
The achievement makes Rosberg the 33rd driver to be crowned world champion, 34 years after his father, Keke, did the same with Williams in 1982. Though many others have tried (including the Villeneuves and the Piquets), the Rosbergs are only the second father-son duo to have both won the world championship following Graham (1962 & ’68) and Damon Hill (in ’96).
After Rosberg and Hamilton, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finishes the season in third place, followed by Vettel in fourth, Max Verstappen in fifth, and Kimi Raikkonen sixth. Felipe Massa and Jenson Button finish their final seasons in eleventh and fifteenth places, respectively.
The combined points of its two drivers crown the Mercedes team as constructors’ champions for the third year in a row. And by some margin, with 765 points to Red Bull’s 468 and Ferrari’s 398.
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