MOTORSPORT: Rosberg wins F1 crown

Nico Rosberg is an ecstatic Formula 1 world champion today, as his father Keke was 34 years ago. Meanwhile teammate Lewis Hamilton is in the bad books with his Mercedes team, accused by some of “dirty tricks” on the way to winning the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“That definitely wasn’t the most enjoyable race I’ve ever had! It definitely wasn’t fun. I’m just really glad it’s over!” said Rosberg, who had been sandwiched between Hamilton in front of him and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen with less than a second between the four of them at the finish.

Hamilton had driven comparatively slowly during the race, backing Rosberg up into those behind him, hoping that two would pass his teammate to enable the Brit to snatch a fourth world title. Rosberg needed a podium finish to clinch the title with Hamilton winning.

It was Vettel who accused Hamilton of “dirty tricks”, while Mercedes team chiefs have said they will consider what action to take against Hamilton for defying team orders to speed up and not aid those pursuing Rosberg.

As in the Brazilian rain two weeks earlier, 19-year-old Verstappen was the sensation of the Abu Dhabi race, recovering from a spin coming out of the opening corner that dropped him to last, only to then finish a brilliant fourth after making just one stop.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo wound up fifth, two places lower than he started, and lamented that Red Bull had not put him on a one-stop strategy too.

The last race for Jenson Button ended prematurely with a suspension failure in his McLaren-Honda, while Brazilian Felipe Massa bowed out with ninth place in his Williams-Mercedes – behind the Force India-Mercs of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez but ahead of Fernando Alonso in the other McLaren.

Hamilton and Rosberg finished one-two for the fourth race in a row. It was Hamilton’s tenth win of the season but he came up five points short of a fourth crown – and defiant about his tactics in the finale.

“I don’t think I did anything dangerous today, or unfair,” Hamilton said.

“We’re fighting for a world championship. I was in the lead of the race, so I control the pace. That’s the rules.

“I’m in the position where I’ve had a lot of points lost during the season, so I’m out there fighting. We had already won the constructors’ championship, so it was down to me and Nico – and the team still felt they needed to interfere,” Hamilton whined.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said of Hamilton’s tactics in trying to nudge Rosberg out of a podium finish: “Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. It is very simple. Anarchy does not work in any team and in any company.

“The other half [of me] says it was his [Hamilton’s] only chance of winning the championship ... and maybe you cannot demand of a racing driver that is one of the best, if not the best, to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him.”

Rosberg made no public complaint about Hamilton’s tactics as he celebrated with his wife, Vivian, and prepared to do the same with Finnish dad Keke (the 1982 world champion and winner of Australia’s first F1 race in Adelaide in 1985) and German mother Sina.

“Lewis was using all his skill to do it perfectly, so there was no way for me to manage to get by,” 31-year-old Rosberg said.

“Two Rosbergs are champions now! It’s a really special feeling.”

The late Graham Hill (1962, 1968) and Damon Hill (1996) have been the only other father-son F1 world champions.

“I hope I don’t experience that [kind of race] again any time soon though!” Rosberg said.

“The battle with Max, the pressure at the end, Lewis driving slow – the feelings during that were just unreal.

“Crazy. It was so intense. Those last couple of laps, with those two [Vettel and Verstappen] behind and knowing if I dropped behind them it was over – not enjoyable!

“It feels like I’ve been racing Lewis forever, and he’s always just managed to edge me out, even when we were small in karts. So that makes this even more satisfying. He’s an amazing driver, a phenomenal benchmark.

“I took the championship away from him. And just five points in it at the end – that’s unbelievable.

“Mental strength is a key ingredient to where I am now.

“My dad and mum have been such a big part of this. Just massive. Every Saturday night I get a message from my dad. Normally it’s ‘Pedal to the metal!’

“But it’s also everybody who supports me in the world – everyone who came this weekend, the people close to me, my team, my racing family, my family. Everybody has their part of this.”

The mateship between Rosberg and Hamilton from their karting days evaporated long ago as they became not only teammates at Mercedes but rivals for the biggest prize in world motorsport.

The initial coolness between them post-race in Abu Dhabi was replaced by a handshake on the podium.

“We shouldn’t let it overshadow the fact Nico is champion,” Hamilton said of the torrid battle across a season with a record 21 GPs.

“I did everything I could this year, especially in the final races, but Nico had a clean year without any real issues... that’s why we sit in these positions. He did a fantastic job, so congratulations – and I look forward to fighting with him next year.”

Ferrari ended a winless season on a positive note, with Vettel – who like Verstappen made only one stop in the finale – on the podium after finishing ahead of the Red Bull pair and teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

“In the last couple of GPs we had very good race pace, always enough to match Red Bull, and probably even a bit quicker,” Vettel said.

“The spirit is unbroken. We will work hard, because Ferrari deserves to come back [under next year’s rules that will introduce more powerful hybrid cars with wider tyres and more aggressive aerodynamics].”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said 19-year-old Verstappen’s recovery from his first-lap spin, after he clipped Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India-Mercedes, had been “quite phenomenal”.

Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, had “spent most of the race tucked up under someone’s rear wing and that gave his tyres quite a hard time and fifth place was probably about the maximum” he could have achieved.

Ricciardo said he was “not too down... just frustrated in how the strategy played out in the end”.

“I think we should have just gone long [on the super-soft tyres before pitting] and one-stopped,” Ricciardo said.

“I saw Max spin in my mirrors in turn one, so I thought he was out of the race and then he does a one-stop and fights for the podium, so he did well. I just feel we hurt with the two-stop strategy as the super-soft was a good tyre.

“Hats off to Nico. It must be an amazing feeling to be world champion,” the Aussie stated.

Ricciardo continued: “Looking at the season overall I’m super happy and very pleased with the year [finishing third in the world championship and winning the Malaysian GP after team tactical errors denied him victory in Spain and Monaco]. It’s definitely been more highs than lows, with a lot of podiums, satisfying races and a good chunk of points.

“I got amongst it when I could, so it was a good 2016, for sure.

“I’m not going to get too caught up with thinking about next year, but if we woke up in February for testing and the [new] car’s quick then you’ll see me fighting for it [the world title].”

Final Formula 1 World Championship driver standings after 21 rounds: 1 Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 385 points; 2 Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 380; 3 Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 256; 4 Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 212; 5 Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull-Renault) 204; 6 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 186; 7 Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 101; 8 Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 85; 9 Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 72; 10 Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 54; 11 Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 53; 12 Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 46; 13 Romain Grosjean (France, Haas-Ferrari) 29; 14 Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso –Ferrari) 25; 15 Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 21; 16 Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, Renault) 7; 17 Felipe Nasr (Brazil, Sauber-Ferrari) 2; 18 Jolyon Palmer (GB, Renault) 1; 19 Pascal Wehrlein (Germany, Manor-Mercedes) 1; 20 Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, McLaren-Honda) 1.

F1 constructor standings: 1 Mercedes 765 points; 2 Red Bull-Renault 468; 3 Ferrari 398; 4 Force India-Mercedes 173; 5 Williams-Mercedes 138; 6 McLaren-Honda 76; 7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 63; 8 Haas-Ferrari 29; 9 Renault 8; 10 Sauber-Ferrari 2; 11 Manor-Mercedes 1.