Although it was a strange race for those in front, with Hamilton going so slowly, it was a more normal race for the rest of the pack, with the usual drivers reaching the points. However, there were a few incidents which compromised some races. Here is a round up of all the action from the race.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton P1
Despite doing all he could to prevent Rosberg from taking the championship, winning all of the last four races, he just missed out to his teammate. Dominating the whole weekend, he then chose to back Rosberg into his rivals come the race, in the hope they would make it past.
With 10 laps to go it looked like this strategy may pay off and, despite calls from his team to pick up the pace, he continued to slow Rosberg down. The team again warned him to speed up, but again he refused, as doing that would ruin his title hopes. In the end, this didn’t pay off but he tried all he could.
When questioned about his tactics, Hamilton said:
“I don’t think I did anything dangerous today…I don’t feel I did anything unfair. We’re fighting for a championship, I was in the lead, I control the pace. That’s the rules.”
Nico Rosberg P2
Rosberg did just enough in Abu Dhabi to take his first championship win. Under pressure throughout the race, he admitted that it wasn’t a fun race.
After his first stop, Rosberg found himself behind Verstappen. Despite being in the quicker car, Rosberg opted to play it safe and was unable to make it past until lap 22, by which time Verstappen’s tyres were worn out. From there, he tried to make up the time lost behind the Red Bull.
Making his second and final stop on lap 29 Rosberg came out behind Hamilton, in third as Vettel was yet to pit. With nothing to lose, Hamilton majorly slowed Rosberg enough to allow both Vettel and Verstappen to catch the leading pair.
A tense 15 laps followed, with Rosberg hoping to cling on to second position in order to take the title. Unwilling to take risks, he became extremely worried as the gap to Vettel closed until the Ferrari was well within one second. However, he was just able to fend him off until the chequered flag to seal the world championship by 5 points.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen P4
Spinning at the start, Verstappen found himself at the back. But, for Verstappen, overtaking is no problem. Flying through the field, he was into the points by lap 7. Switching onto a one-stop strategy, he soon found himself in contention for a podium finish.
However, with Vettel closing rapidly in the final laps, Verstappen – on older tyres – was no match for the Ferrari. Disappointed to finish fourth, Verstappen could only imagine what could have happened if all had gone to plan on lap 1…
Daniel Ricciardo P5
Starting third, Ricciardo looked as if he would be able to closely challenge the Mercedes duo. However, making a poor start, he dropped back a couple of places and never really recovered.
Unlike his teammate, Ricciardo opted for the two-stop which, in the end, didn’t work out as well as he would have hoped. He spent some of the race behind his teammate, which hugely compromised his strategy, and in the end could only manage fifth.
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel P3
A good strategy call from Ferrari allowed Vettel to secure a podium finish in the race. Staying out longer than his rivals, he switched to the much faster supersofts and hunted down the two Red Bull drivers. On Rosberg’s tail in the closing stages of the race, he came incredibly close to taking the position but was not quite able to make the pass. Nevertheless, he was happy to pick up another podium after what has been a rather tough year for Ferrari.
Kimi Raikkonen P6
Struggling to make the tyres work, Raikkonen was unable to match the pace of his teammate. After a relatively quiet race, he came home a disappointing sixth, unable to pass Ricciardo – who undercut him in the pit stops.
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg P7
Involved in a collision with Verstappen at turn one, Hulkenberg completed the race with a damaged floor on his car. This compromised his race, but he was lucky to be able to continue without significant issues. He was happy to finish the race in a strong position in what was his final race for Force India before making the move to Renault for 2017.
Sergio Perez P8
Fighting his teammate for position in the early stages of the race, Perez soon dropped back and ran a fairly quiet race on his own. However, in the closing laps, he came under pressure from Felipe Massa but managed to hold his position to take eighth.
Williams
Felipe Massa P9
Beating Bottas into Q3 in qualifying for his final race, Massa lined up in 10th position. Driving a strong race, he pitted early, dropping him to 13th. Running as high as seventh before his second and final stop, on lap 31, he dropped back through the field. Hunting Perez down for eighth right until the flag as well as holding off Alonso, he kept on fighting until the end of what will be his final race of his career.
Valtteri Bottas DNF
Struggling in qualifying, Bottas missed out on Q3, just pushed out by his teammate. He lined up in 11th, but a strong start put him right up in the points and ahead of Massa. However, a rear suspension failure ended his race prematurely and he had to sit out the final race of 2016.
McLaren
Fernando Alonso P10
A strong qualifying session on Saturday put Alonso ahead of the Williams duo on the grid. However, in the race he struggled for pace against the quicker cars and slipped back to tenth. Despite this, he was able to keep the fight alive until the final laps of the race, determined not to give up.
Jenson Button DNF
Button’s final Formula One race came to a disappointing and early end when he suffered suspension failure on lap 12 after hitting a kerb. He had wanted to finish his final race in the points but a rare suspension issue ended his race early.
“My race was short, but I loved everything else. I was really emotional before I got in the car – it was such a special atmosphere to have the whole team and all my friends and family cheer me on my way into the garage. I’m just glad I was wearing my sunglasses at that moment…”
Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz DNF, Daniil Kvyat DNF
Toro Rosso had a disappointing race to end the 2016 season, with neither driver making it to the end. Kvyat had a tough weekend all around, suffering reliability issues in practice which meant he only got 5 laps in. This compromised his qualifying session and he was unable to escape Q1. Then, in the race itself, he had a gearbox failure which ended his weekend.
Sainz also had a tough weekend, starting down in 21st but was up to 14th before he was hit by Palmer. This collision caused serious damage to the car and he retired on lap 41.
Haas
Romain Grosjean P11
Another disappointing qualifying session meant that Grosjean started the race from down in 14th. Although scoring points was a long shot, it was his target for the race. Just missing out on this despite a late charge to hunt down Alonso, Grosjean said that:
“There were some laps where my pace was amazing and the car felt really good when the tyres were working. Then a few laps later things are going out of sync. It’s clear where we have to work.”
He is optimistic for his team’s chances next year and certainly thinks that their is potential to move higher up the grid.
Esteban Gutierrez P12
Despite qualifying ahead of Grosjean, he was quickly passed by his teammate in the race and unable to regain the position. He will be leaving the team at the end of this year, replaced by Kevin Magnussen. So far he is yet to secure a drive for 2017.
Renault
Jolyon Palmer P17, Kevin Magnussen DNF
Hit on the opening lap, Magnussen had to pit for a new front wing and dropped to the back. Then, on lap 5, he became the first retirement on the grand prix, with suspension damage from the collision forcing him to stop. Palmer’s race went well initially, running up in 11th position and fighting with the Williams drivers. But tyre degradation became a huge issue and he slowly slipped down the order.
Sauber
Marcus Ericcson P15
Ericsson opted for a one-stop race, which certainly gave him a challenge. However, it didn’t pay off as they had hoped as he was unable to push on the tyres, having to manage the degradation. In the end, he finished a disappointing 15th.
Felipe Nasr P16
Nasr also had a difficult race. A strong start put him in a good position, ahead of the Manors. But he received damage on the car after a collision with Ocon and had to make an unscheduled stop. This compromised his race and he ended up 16th.
Despite this disappointing result, they did manage to secure the important 10th place in the constructor’s which is a positive for them to take away from what has been another hard year.
Manor
Esteban Ocon P13
Frustrated to start so far behind his teammate after a tough qualifying, Ocon made emends in the race. A great start saw him gain three places and before long he was running 11th. Although he was unable to hold onto this position, he was pleased to have a strong race and managed to hold off Wehrlein in the final stint.
Pascal Wehrlein P14
Starting the race 16th, Wehrlein also has a strong start but a slow first stop meant that he dropped back down the order. On a different strategy to Ocon, Wehrlein was unable to challenge his teammate who was on much fresher tyres. Despite this, it was a strong result to finish ahead of both Saubers.