November 29, 2015 – Nico Rosberg defeated Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton for the third race in succession on Sunday, with a commanding drive in the 2015 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The world champion put in a late charge, but it wasn’t enough to stop Rosberg prevailing to score his sixth win of the season.
Rosberg started well from pole and was always in charge of a tactical race, even after Hamilton tried to extend his second stint so that he would have the advantage of fresher soft-compound Pirelli tyres in the losing stages.
After stopping for the second and final time on lap 41, 10 later than Rosberg, Hamilton was 12.5s adrift and quickly reduced that deficit to 6.8s with four laps to run, but then he ran into traffic and Rosberg was able to extend the gap to a comfortable 8.2s by the flag.
Behind the Silver Arrows, Kimi Raikkonen drove a strong race for Ferrari to take third and secure fourth in the drivers’ world championship ahead of countryman Valtteri Bottas, as Sebastian Vettel came up from 15th on the grid to take fourth for the Scuderia. The German started on soft rubber and made a set of supersofts last from the 39th lap.
Sergio Perez realised Force India’s potential with a solid fifth, fending off a consistent challenge from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg was unable to do better than seventh in the second Force India. He was nevertheless well clear of Williams’ better placed finisher Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was just able to resist attacks from outgoing Lotus racer Romain Grosjean at the end.
Grosjean, like Vettel, had started on softs after getting a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, and used a set of supersofts right at the end to jump Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, thus departing the team with two final points which ensured that they stayed ahead of Toro Rosso in the standings.
