The 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix unlike the previous year was inconsequential as Lewis Hamilton had secured third Drivers’ Championship earlier in the season at the United States Grand Prix.
His team, Mercedes, had decided the Constructors’ Championship in their favour at the Russian Grand Prix.
However, several positions in the standings were still undecided. In the battle for fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship, Valtteri Bottas was just one point ahead of compatriot Kimi Räikkönen, with Felipe Massa in sixth also still able to get the position, being 19 points behind his Williams teammate Bottas. . Red Bull teammates Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo were just ten points apart in the battle for seventh in the championship.
Lewis Hamilton set his fastest time first with Rosberg right behind him, but in the third sector allowed Rosberg to take his sixth consecutive pole position by four tenths of a second. Kimi Räikkönen beat Sergio Pérez for the third spot on the grid. The two were followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas.
In the race, Hamilton made a slow start, but somehow managed to stay ahead of Pérez and Räikkönen behind him as Rosberg led the proceedings in the front. Fernando Alonso had to pit for a new front-wing and was later given a drive-through penalty after a contact with Felipe Nasr and then a crash into Pastor Maldonado, who was forced to retire. The leaders pitted for new tyres around laps ten and eleven, with the order now being Rosberg ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who was yet to stop, Hamilton, and Räikkönen.
Vettel for a brief while took control of the second spot, but a mistake allowed Hamilton to retake his second spot and then held on to it till the end. Rosberg won the race comfortably while Kimi Räikkönen finished third for Ferrari. It was the twelfth one-two finish for Mercedes, in a record-breaking season that saw them finish with the highest ever number of points scored by a constructor, most front row lookouts and one-two finishes over the course of any Formula One season.
