Rosberg takes third win in a row to end season

Nico Rosberg won his third consecutive race from pole position as an alternative strategy failed to work out for Lewis Hamilton.

With Hamilton complaining he was unable to overtake his team-mate on track in Brazil and calling to be allowed to run a different strategy, Mercedes obliged in Abu Dhabi. The pair ran equal opening stint lengths before Hamilton's middle stint on soft tyres saw him run ten laps longer than Rosberg.

Having closed a six-second gap in the middle part of the race, Hamilton was left with over 12 seconds to make up against his team-mate in the final 14 laps but he failed to even cut the advantage in half before Mercedes called off the fight.

Despite running an older power unit, Rosberg had looked the more comfortable of the two Mercedes drivers and never came under serious pressure from Hamilton despite a pace difference in the middle stint. Rosberg saw a substantial lead gradually disappear but Hamilton never got within DRS range before the different strategies pulled them apart on track again.

Kimi Raikkonen came home a lonely third after failing to keep in touch with the Mercedes drivers after the first round of pit stops, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel staged an impressive recovery from 15th on the grid to fourth place.

Raikkonen's result did at least ensure he finished fourth in the drivers' championship ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who failed to score after a Williams pit error saw him lose his front wing against the rear of Jenson Button's car when exiting his pit box.

A poor start from Hamilton saw him have to defend from Raikkonen rather than attack Rosberg, and the two Mercedes' eased away in the opening ten laps while Raikkonen also dropped Sergio Perez. There was contact at Turn 1 as Fernando Alonso took out Pastor Maldonado, eliminating the Lotus and earning Alonso a drive-through penalty.

It was a busy opening few laps in the midfield, with drivers scrapping for position as the supersoft tyres would not last long. With pit stops beginning as early as lap five, there was a busy pit lane early in the race which contributed to Bottas' incident. The Finn was released from a stop despite cars coming down the pit lane and he came out as Button entered his pit box, hitting the rear of the McLaren and breaking his front wing.

Vettel had started on the soft tyre to try and make up for his lowly grid position, promoting him to second as he ran long on the soft tyre. He slipped back to fifth after his first stop before later passing Perez on the supersoft tyre, but by then he was a long way adrift of team-mate Raikkonen.

Perez came home fifth to complete an impressive end to the season for Force India, having the pace to keep Daniel Ricciardo at bay. The Red Bull was a threat at the start of each stint but Perez was able to pull away on each occasion to leave Ricciardo in fifth, a result which sees Daniil Kvyat finish three points clear of his team-mate in the drivers' standings.

Nico Hulkenberg was seventh but half a minute behind his team-mate despite a strong start seeing the German jump up to fifth. Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Kvyat rounded out the top ten, with Grosjean overtaking both Kvyat and Carlos Sainz in the closing laps after a late pit stop. The two points earned by Grosjean - couple with Toro Rosso's failure to score - saw Lotus take sixth place in the constructors' championship.

While Alonso's race was ruined by his first corner incident, Jenson Button ran competitively in the second McLaren to come home 12th. Button battled with a number of cars, most spectacularly with Max Verstappen who attempted to overtake in to Turn 8 but Button stayed on the inside at Turn 9, forcing Verstappen to go off track to complete the move and earning the Toro Rosso driver a five-second time penalty.

Verstappen was also penalised with a post-race drive-through for ignoring blue flags, demoting him to 16th place in the final results.

Rosberg's victory marks the first time he has won three consecutive races in Formula One. The result leaves Rosberg with six wins for the season - one more than in 2014 - while he also scored five more points than last year.

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix