Abu Dhabi: Lewis Hamilton revved up the engine when it mattered. As soon as he had the foot on the pedal, the lead was his and he never looked back. By turn one, the leader was decided as the Briton had taken things beyond the reach of the other title contender and teammate Nico Rosberg.
The 29-year-old remained in the lead from start to finish and clinched his second world championship in a spectacular fashion, clocking 1:39.02 seconds in front of a packed house at the season-ending finale at the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday. Brazilian driver Felipe Massa crossed the line in second place ahead of his Williams teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Smoking up a couple of donuts, Hamilton went on the victory lap with the Union Jack amidst the cheers from his fans. He then rushed over to hug his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, who was in tears as she kissed her boyfriend’s helmet. Hamilton joins British drivers Graham Hill and Jim Clark with two F1 titles, and only Jackie Stewart ahead of him on three. He also joins a number of other drivers on two titles, including his rival Fernando Alonso.
“I’m lost for words. This title means more than my first one. I want to thank my fans, my family and team. All year long, Rosberg drove very well. Unfortunately today, his car didn’t support him,” said an emotional Hamilton after collecting the trophy and fizzing out some champagne.
It was Hamilton’s 11th win of the season compared to Rosberg’s five victories but the dramatic conclusion to the title race as it failed to rise to the expectations with the German struggling all through with car problems and finishing 14th.
The clinical passing move at the beginning gave Hamilton total control and all that pre-race fighting talk with some aggressive driving unfortunately never happened.
Rosberg was four tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton in qualifying, but all hell broke loose on race day as he kept losing pace.
A frustrated Rosberg was heard speaking on the radio about losing ground and was given the advice ‘to drive flat out’ in order to get back to top 5. He quickly slipped to the eighth spot and just couldn’t recover and eventually even fell out of the points. Rosberg was even told to “box, box, box” and retire but he insisted on going on till the end saying, “No, I’d like to finish the race.”
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, driving for the last time for Red Bull, despite starting from the back of the grid for using an illegal front wing during the qualifying, managed to finish eigth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.
