Race: Hamilton wins tense final, Rosberg is champion

Lewis Hamilton concluded his 2016 campaign with a 10th race victory as he took the chequered flag after a fiesty end to the Abu Dhabi GP while Nico Rosberg’s P3 handed him his first F1 World title.

It was all about the championship rivals in Abu Dhabi with cameos from Ferrari and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, both of whom caused a bit of niggle for the Mercedes drivers – especially Rosberg.

Kimi Raikkonen forced Mercedes to have hold Hamilton in his pit box a second longer than wanted as the Finn came down the pit lane. A lap later Sebastian Vettel did the exact same to Rosberg, who was stationary for 4.8s.

They emerged from the first round of stops with Hamilton P1 and Rosberg P3 having been overhauled by Verstappen. The Dutchman was out of sync with the rest after a spin at Turn 1 on the opening lap dropped him to the back of the field.

Rosberg lapped behind Verstappen for 10 laps before being told that it is “critical now that we start passing Verstappen.” It was a heart-in-the-mouth moment as Rosberg and Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel, almost touched, with the German eventually pulling ahead through Turn 11 to run P2 behind Hamilton.

As pit stops played out the Mercedes drivers raced in the 1-2 through to the chequered flag but with 10 to go, it all got a bit fiesty as Hamilton finally did the backing up that was his only shot …

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