Nico Rosberg clinched his maiden Formula 1 world championship by holding off Sebastian Vettel to finish second in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as rival Lewis Hamilton won the race. Rosberg only had to finish third to clinch the championship, as the pair entered their second title showdown in three seasons. In winning the title,
Hamilton scored his eighth pole of 2016 – his third on the trot here and his fourth overall at Sepang – as teammate Rosberg simply couldn’t live with his raw pace. Rosberg, who’s never started from pole in Malaysia, suffered a dreadful first run that was topped by both Red Bulls and a Ferrari. Rosberg had
Rosberg was on course to score his third victory on the trot at the Red Bull Ring, despite picking up damage to his car when Sebastian Vettel’s tyre exploded right in front of him. But Hamilton attacked him at Turn 2 on the final lap, where the pair made contact. Rosberg’s car sustained a broken
Here was Hamilton’s chance to really turn the screw, to hammer home the impression that all the momentum in the title race had taken a decisive shift. Instead his mistakes meant Rosberg, under pressure after Montreal and Monaco and under the cosh all weekend in Baku, could enjoy an easy passage to pole position. Even
From pole position, Rosberg led Bottas and Raikkonen through the Turn 1 sweeper. Raikkonen grabbed second at Turn 2, but it all kicked off behind him as an out-of-control Kvyat hit Vettel into the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Behind them, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg went out at Turn 2 for the second time
Rosberg, who will be bidding for his seventh win on the trot tomorrow, lapped in 1m35.417s. He was 0.842s clear of Sebastian Vettel – who won’t start from the front row due to his grid penalty for a gearbox change. Hamilton failed to take part in Q3 as he suffered an apparent MGU-H failure at the end
The Strategy Group and F1 Commission met at Biggin Hill hoping to sign off a raft of changes to the regulations aimed at making cars faster and mapping out engine rules to bring costs down and performance closer. On the car front, the situation was clear, with the radical overhaul of cars to make them
Rosberg’s Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who had a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, will start from the back of the grid after being hit by ERS problems during the opening qualifying segment. Rosberg was second quickest until the dying seconds, when he set a blistering lap to grab pole with a best time of
Lewis Hamilton will receive a five-place grid penalty for the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend after Mercedes opted to make a precautionary gearbox change. The two-time world champion, who starts the weekend 17 points adrift of his Mercedes AMG Petronas team-mate Nico Rosberg in Shanghai, suffered damage during the preceding Bahrain Grand Prix after a
After more criticism of the new system last weekend, a proposal for aggregate laps was put forward by F1’s governing body – although it received a lukewarm response from team bosses and was mocked by some drivers. “It’s time to go to the circus,” said an especially unimpressed Sebastian Vettel. The statement from the FIA