Abu Dhabi GP: Rosberg gate-crashes Hamilton's party

Ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix one would have hedged a bet on Lewis Hamilton ending Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg's run of good form.

The F1 world champion talked up his chances ahead of the season finale by referring to Yas Marina Circuit as his second home race, while the UAE itself obliged by turning 44 this year and as a result Hamilton's number 44 was all over the place.

Ideally for the world champion elect, the last grand prix of the year would have been a celebration of victory and a return to the pecking order within the Silver arrows camp.

But instead the script was written for Rosberg who wrapped up the Formula 1 season on a winning high in Abu Dhabi with Hamilton second in a record 12th one-two finish of the year for dominant Mercedes.

The German's third win in a row, from a sixth successive pole position, dashed Hamilton's hopes of a 44th career victory in car 44 on the 44th anniversary of the founding of the United Arab Emirates.

The Briton, who clinched the title in Texas last month with three races to spare, finished 8.2 seconds behind after an attempt at a different strategy failed to produce the desired result. The win was the 16th in 19 races for Mercedes.

"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.

"I'm excited about how the end of the season went and next year -- it can come any moment, it could start tomorrow if it were up to me, no problem. I don't need any holidays."

"It's always tough to race Lewis, he's doing an awesome job," said Rosberg. "So it's an even better feeling to win. It's a great battle internally all the time, that's what I race for and I look forward to more next year."

Hamilton had asked over the team radio with 15 laps to go whether he could go to the end having made only one pitstop to Rosberg's two but was left in no doubt that such a move would not work.

He then pitted on the next lap, any hopes of a wheel-to-wheel battle over the final laps effectively disappearing into the night as he did so.

"In hindsight, once Nico had pitted I probably would have backed off a little bit and gone a bit longer...As that didn't work out, the stop, going too long was probably not the right thing to do, but we gave it a try," he said.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took third place ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel, who started 15th, for only the Finn's third podium appearance of the season.

Raikkonen summed up his day, "We started better this season but it's not been an ideal year. The speed has been there but there have been mistakes and problems. Today was a bit better. Obviously not enough to beat these two."

Rosberg's win was his sixth of the season, 14th of his career, and a hat-trick first for the German who had never before managed to win three races in a row.

Hamilton ended the championship with 10 victories, one fewer than in 2014, but he took more poles and fastest laps than anyone else.

Mexican Sergio Perez finished fifth, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo sixth for Red Bull and splitting the Force India cars with Germany's Nico Hulkenberg seventh.

Brazilian Felipe Massa took eighth place for Williams, ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean in ninth in his final race for Lotus before moving to 2016 newcomers Haas. Russian Daniil Kvyat secured the final point for Red Bull.

From the start Rosberg was always in control and across his opening stint on used supersoft tyres he opened up a gap of almost five seconds to Hamilton in second place.

The Briton had to fend off challenges from Räikkönen and Force India’s fourth-on-the-grid Sergio Perez at the start but he soon settled into second place. Perez held his starting position ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Further back Vettel was already making up ground, rising from 15th to 12th by the end of lap one, despite making contact with Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso. Having started on the soft prime tyre , the German then briefly rose to second place as the supersoft starters around him began to pit, with Rosberg stopping on lap nine and Hamilton following his team-mate a lap later.

At the start of the second stint Roberg began to stretch his legs, broadening the gap to 7 seconds but Hamilton then began to push, chopping two seconds off the deficit by lap 22 and then reducing it by a further 2.5 seconds over the next few laps.

With Rosberg in more trouble with tyres than his team-mate Hamilton elected to extend the stint, hoping to keep up the momentum and erase the deficit as Rosberg’s pace dropped and he worked through his pit stop, which came at the end of lap 31.

The German switched to soft tyres and began to close on Hamilton in a bid to cover any decision by Hamilton’s crew to put the Briton on the more fragile but significantly faster supersoft tyres for his final stint. He eventually brought matters under control with a 10s gap to his team-mate with 15 laps remaining.

The threat of Hamilton on supersofts never materialized, however, and when the Briton made his final visit to pit lane he took on soft tyres and emerged 12 seconds adrift of his team-mate. Rosberg then controlled matters until the chequered flag to finish 8.2 seconds in front to claim his sixth win of the year and his third in a row.

Behind them Räikkönen ploughed a lonely furrow in third place, having got past team-mate Vettel as the German’s tyres faded towards the end of his first soft-tyre stint.

Vettel pitted on lap 24 for another set of softs and then with 15 laps to go the German switched to the quicker supesofts. The injection of pace allowed him to haul himself up to an excellent fourth place, passing Ricciardo and Perez in the closing stages.

Perez clung onto fifth ahead of Ricciardo, with Nico Hulkenber finishing seventh, ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa.

Romain Grosjean, in his final race for Lotus, worked a three-strategy well to surge through to the points positions in the final stages and he finished ninth ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat.

Carlos Sainz’s race was hampered by a slow first pit stop and he finished in 11th place ahead of team-mate Verstappen. Jenson Button was 13th for McLaren, ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas who collided with Button in the pits and was forced to make an additional stop as a result.

Marcus Ericsson beat team-mate Felipe Nasr to take P15, while Fernando Alonso was 17th, the Spaniard having collided with Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado at the start. Will Stevens beat Manor team-mate Roberto Merhi by taking 18th place.

[highlight ]Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit - Race Result[/highlight]

Note - Verstappen Initially Finished 12th, But Had 5s Added To His Race Time For Leaving The Track And Gaining An Advantage, And A Further 20s For Ignoring Blue Flags.