The fact that it's caused such discussion can only be a good thing for the interest in the sport. I doubt Bernie would have been all that happy with another boring 1-2 for Merc and I am sure he would have preferred Hamilton to have won another title as is a more marketable 'asset' to the sport.

What more could / would Mercedes have proved? Even if Vettel / Max had passed Rosberg, they had the drivers and constructors championships in the bag, so job done. Everyone knows they are the fastest / best team at the moment, so what harm could it possibly have done to let them race and raise the profile of the sport.

I enjoyed the race until the last few corners, isn't that what it's all about? The number of posts about 'boring F1' etc just go to prove that it needs some needle like this, which is invariably brought about by drivers who push the boundaries.

 

Hamilton was speeding up in the first sector where the passing opportunities were, and then slowing down in the twisty bits where there wasn't much chance of Rosberg passing. Of course that also meant Rosberg could speed up in the first sector making it impossible for Vettel to get past, so maybe it was never quite as close as it appeared. Not good enough isn't really fair; they both clearly could have gone much faster. Rosberg taking Vestappen was great, showed a lot of skill and in the circumstances he took a huge risk.

I thought it was a pretty dull race for most of the second half, then became thrilling at the end. Though to be honest I couldn't wait for it to finish.

 

If the situation had been reversed, with Rosberg backing Hamilton into Vettel, do you think that Hamilton would have sat behind Rosberg? I doubt it. Its not even like Rosberg was sat right on Hamilton's gearbox for the whole lap.

 

He'd have driven for second too. If Rosberg had tried anything Hamilton would have certainly pushed him off the track or crashed into him and he'd have lost. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by trying to take the win; Hamilton would have thought exactly the same.

 

Why would Hamilton do either of those?
Firstly, he pretty much had to win the race, and risking damage to his own car in such circumstances makes no sense, and besides, a deliberate crash would have resulted in a penalty of some sort for him (see under "Schumacher/Villeneuve").

Then again, had Rosberg not been second best in qualifying then the situation wouldn't have arisen at all.

As is often the case in F1, the championship was won by the man in the best car.

 

Hamilton goal was to get Rosberg into a dual with Verstappen. He knew Verstappen would have had a lunge and a good chance of taking Rosberg out.

As it was, the aerodynamics showed their traits allowing no similar pace car to pass when within a second of the car infront.

 

Rosberg and Verstappen had a duel (presumably that's what you meant by a "dual" ), which Rosberg won with a good clean pass. Vettel was a more immediate threat towards the end of the race, although he "ran out of tyres" in the last few laps, so wasn't able to get particularly close, even with the slow pace up front.

Horner and Rosberg's comments are a good read: Christian Horner - Lewis Hamilton did nothing wrong in Abu Dhabi

 

J Had to chuckle at Seb multi 21 Vettel accusing Hamilton of dirty tricks

 

 

I agree, totally riveting for once, outcome seriously in question, Hamilton causing great ruckus! With the completely unnatural DRS in play, it was a shame that Hamilton couldn't actually COMPLETE the backing up of Rosburg so Vettel could (and would) have overtaken, and if done early enough (he didn't) then Verstappen might have also overtaken for HUGE drama with a Rosburg pass at the end required for a win. The DRS meant that Hamilton had to play those modern F1 games of going slow in the slow corners and then launching before the long straights to prevent a DRS overtake.

I'm not a fan of any particular driver or team, have been loving the technology for decades. I'm disgusted by the BS "cost savings" rules. Spare built chassis should be at every race, complete BS. The "tokens" finally allowed some upgrades but the "fixed" nature of the engine design and spec is just stupid in a sport at this level and like this. M-B clearly hit a out-of-the-park home run with the current engine design putting the hot side connection to the cold side turbo on opposite sides of the block but they crippled Honda for more than a year in trying to get on terms instead of rewarding a team like Honda for trying to do it all themselves rather than rewarding a team like Haas that was driving more of a customer car for Ferrari than probably even Torro Rosso! These idiot cost savings rules have fully prevented F1 lesser teams to upgrade and improve as rapidly as possible to compete. Think about the reactions to the Brawn diffuser and within a season, they were back to Button preserving finishing positions to hang on to win his championship.

Stepping off my soap box until next year. Can't wait for the new "formula" and it should be very exciting. Go McLaren/Honda!