Nico Rosberg makes it a hat-trick of wins (first time in his career) to end victorious at Abu Dhabi ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

A new Mercedes one-two finish makes it the 12th of the season, and for Rosberg it’s a dominant finish to the championship with three consecutive wins, six consecutive poles and his 40th career podium.

"Delicious, the best ever" said a very satisfied Rosberg afterwards. "Since Austin I’ve come back a lot stronger. I’m excited about how the end of the season went - next season can come as soon as you want!"

Meanwhile, Hamilton commented it was "an amazing year. I’m happy it’s over for sure, and now we can really enjoy. I really have to make my hat off to this team."

As for the Iceman himself, it was a great weekend for him and a return to the podium in Abu Dhabi. "This weekend was a bit better, everything was working well. But obviously not enough to beat these two" said Kimi.

After the podium finishers was a remarkable Sebastian Vettel who came back from 15th to make it a Ferrari P3 and P4, ahead of Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo.

It wasn’t a good day for Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso or Pastor Maldonado. Bottas lost plenty places during the start and dropped to 14th after colliding with Jenson Button in the pits and receiving a penalty; Alonso collided with Maldonado into the first corner and received a drive-through later on to finish 17th, and Pastor retired after just two corners.