Race Notes - Rosberg wins third race in a row

Nico Rosberg took the win at Abu Dhabi tonight in his Mercedes GP 8.2 seconds over his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place. Kimi Raikkonen finished third in his Ferrari, 19.4 seconds behind the winner.

Rosberg takes his sixth win of the season, and 14th career victory. Mercedes wins their 16th win in 19 rounds (Vettel in the Ferrari taking the other three wins).

Sebastian Vettel (43.7s) in the second Ferrari finished in fourth, followed by Sergio Perez (63.9s) in the Force India-Mercedes in fifth, Daniel Ricciardo (65.0s) in the Red Bull-Renault in sixth, Nico Hulkenberg (93.6s) in the second Force India in seventh, Felipe Massa (97.7s) in the Williams-Mercedes in eighth, Romain Grosjean (98.2s) in his final drive for Lotus-Mercedes in ninth, and Daniil Kvyat (1 lap) in the second Red Bull in the final points paying position in tenth place.

Before the start of the final event of 2015 the weather is warm and dry, with Rosberg once again edging for pole his World Champion winning team mate Hamilton, who starts second on the outside of the front row of the grid. Raikkonen and Perez are on the second row, Ricciardo and Bottas in the third row, Hulkenberg and Massa take the fourth row, and Kvyat and Sainz round out the top ten for the start. Roberto Merhi will start his Manor from the pitlane,

Vettel, Grosjean, Ericsson, Stevens and Merhi start on soft tyres, while the rest of the grid start on soft compound tyres.

At the appointed time, with the sun going down in Abu Dhabi, the drivers bring the cars around to the grid, the lights go out and the race begins with Rosberg taking the lead from Hamilton, Raikkonen and Perez - Hulkenberg jumps up to fifth. Sainz makes a stellar start and is up to seventh, while Vettel is up to 12th.

Maldonado, Nasr and Alonso make contact at the first corner

Alonso pits at the end of the first lap to change his front wing.

On lap 2 Bottas is chasing Kvyat hard for ninth place.

On lap 3 Massa attempts to pass Sainz for seventh, the two battle and Sainz comes back to take the position. Bottas battles Kvyat, but the Russian stays ahead.

On lap 6 Nasr pits, switching on to soft tyres. Kvyat pits early as well for soft tyres.

On lap 7 Perez, Ricciardo and Massa all pit. Alonso is given a drive-through penalty for causing the first lap incident. Hulkenberg and Sainz pit the next lap.

On lap 8 Bottas, Verstappen and Button pit. Button and Bottas make contact in the pit lane and Bottas losses his front wing and needs to limp around for the lap to come back in to replace it.

Alonso serves his stop and go penalty.

On lap 10 with a 4.7 second lead Rosberg pits, Raikkonen pits as well from third. Grosjean and Perez are battling for fifth.

On lap 11 Hamilton pits from second place. Bottas is handed a five-second penalty for his collision with Button in the pits.

Perez gets past Grosjean for fifth. Raikkonen sets fast lap at 1m46.792s.

At lap 12 Rosberg leads Vettel by 4.2 seconds, followed by Hamilton (6.3s), Raikkonen (9.8s), Perez (16.3s), Grosjean (17.6s), Ricciardo (22.1s), Hulkenberg (23.3s), Massa (25.1s), and Kvyat (25.6s) in tenth place.

On lap 13 with Vettel yet to pit, Hamilton passes the Ferrari in the DRS zone to take second place.

Sainz and Verstappen chase Ericsson. Sainz gets past for 11th. Ericsson then pits on lap 16. Raikkonen passes Vettel for third, the Germans tyres getting slower by the lap.

Rosberg leads Hamilton by 6.7 seconds.

On lap 19 Alonso makes his second stop, running last.

Toro Rosso asks Sainz to let his team mate past, and Verstappen takes 11th.

On lap 21 Verstappen pits after flat spotting his tyres.

Ricciardo is chasing down Grosjean in sixth place.

On lap 22 Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m46.744s and closes to 4.8 seconds behind Rosberg in the lead.

On lap 23 Vettel finally makes his first pitstop and stops from fourth place for another set of soft tyres. Grosjean pits as well.

Vettel rejoins in sixth.

Hulkenberg pits the next lap. Hamilton closes the gap on Rosberg to 3.4 seconds.

Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m46.574s. Kvyat and Merhi both pit.

On lap 26 Hulkenberg passes Nasr for 11th. Riccardo pits from sixth along with Massa and Nasr.

Hamilton closes the gap to the leader to 1.7 seconds.

On lap 27 Vettel sets fast lap at 1m46.078s. Perez and Button both pit.

Sainz pits from seventh place the next lap. Bottas pits from 14th place, for his fourth stop.

At lap 30 Rosberg leads Hamilton by 1.3 seconds, followed by Raikkonen (11.7s), Vettel (37.5s), Perez (58.0s), Ricciardo (60.3s), Grosjean (66.1s), Hulkenberg (69.5s), Kvyat (70.8s) and Massa (72.9s) in tenth place.

Vettel sets fast lap at 1m45.965s.

On lap 31 Rosberg pits from the lead for another set of soft tyres, Raikkonen pits as well, and has a slow stop, and Vettel overtakes him on the track.

On lap 33 Rosberg sets fast lap at 1m45.450s, while running 18.8 seconds behind Hamilton, who is yet to pit.

Sainz passes his team mate Verstappen for 11th place.

On lap 36 Vettel lets Raikkonen by for third place.

Grosjean is leading Hulkenberg and Kvyat in a battle for seventh place.

On lap 37 Rosberg closes the gap to Hamilton (who is yet to pit) to 13.0 seconds.

Hamilton tells Mercedes that his rears are starting to go off, they tell him ºif we were to stop we would be six seconds behind Rosberg.¹

On lap 39 Verstappen pits. Vettel pits for super-soft tyres, rejoining in sixth behind Perez and Ricciardo.

Raikkonen sets fast lap at 1m45.222s.

Hamilton asks the team if he can stay out on the same set of tyres until the finsih - the team tells him that they dont think the strategy will work. Hanmilton pits from the lead on lap 41 and takes another set of soft tyres.

Massa is fighting with Kvyat for ninth place.

Vettel sets fast lap at 1m45.156s, and is past Ricciardo in fifth place.

On lap 43 Ericsson pits and switches to super soft tyres.

Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m44.713s, and trails Rosberg by 11.8 seconds, with just over 10 laps left.

Grosjean pits. Verstappen passes Nasr for 13th place.

Hamilton sets another fast lap at 1m44.517s,

Vettel closes on Perez and passes him for fourth place.

On lap 45 Hamilton closes the gap to Rosberg to 10.2 seconds.

Verstappen battles with Button and takes 12th place. Vettel takes fourth place from Perez. Massa passes Kvyat for eighth place.

Verstappen is given a five-second penalty for pushing Button off-track while passing him.

At lap 50 Rosberg has stabalised his lead to 6.8 seconds over Hamilton with laps running down. Raikkonen follows in third (17.5s), Vettel (43.7s), Perez (57.7s), Ricciardo (60.5s), Hulkenberg (85.3s), Massa (89.9s), Kvyat (92.9s) and Sainz (93.9s) in tenth place.

On lap 53 Grosjean passes Sainz for the last point position in tenth.

On lap 54 Grosjean passes Kvyat for ninth place.

Rosberg takes the chequered flag to win over Hamilton and Raikkonen.