2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Racing data
19th of 19 races in the 2015 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:
Date:	November 29, 2015
Place:	Yas Island
Course:	Yas Marina Circuit
Length:	305.355 km in 55 laps of 5.554 km
Pole position
Driver:	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time:	1: 40.237 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time:	1: 44.517 min (lap 44)
Podium
First:	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Second:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Third:	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari

The 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix took place on November 29th at the Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island and was the 19th and final race of the 2015 Formula 1 World Championship .

report

backgrounds

After the Brazilian Grand Prix , Lewis Hamilton led the drivers' standings 76 points ahead of Nico Rosberg and 107 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel . In the constructors' championship, Mercedes led Ferrari with 259 points and Williams with 407 points . The first three positions in the drivers 'championship and the first five positions in the constructors' championship had already been taken before the race.

At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Soft (yellow) and P Zero Supersoft (red), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

As in the previous year, there were two DRS zones on the course. The first zone began 390 meters after turn seven , the measuring point was 40 meters before the turn. The second measurement point was 50 meters after turn nine , the zone began at the apex of turn ten .

At Manor there was another driver change before this race: Roberto Merhi replaced Alexander Rossi as planned , who was prevented from playing in the GP2 series .

Pastor Maldonado (six), Max Verstappen (five), Marcus Ericsson , Nico Hülkenberg (four each), Kimi Räikkönen , Vettel (three), Valtteri Bottas , Jenson Button , Romain Grosjean , Hamilton, Daniil Kwjat , Merhi, Felipe Nasr and Sergio Pérez (two of each) went into the race weekend with penalty points.

With Vettel (three times), Hamilton (twice) and Raikkonen (once), all three previous winners competed in this race.

Khaled Bin Shaiban (ARE), Gary Connelly (AUS), Steve Stringwell (GBR) and Derek Warwick (GBR) acted as race stewards .

training

In the first free practice, Hamilton was fastest with a lap time of 1: 43.754 minutes ahead of Rosberg and Raikkonen.

In the second free practice, Rosberg set the fastest time in 1: 41.983 minutes ahead of Hamilton and Pérez. Carlos Sainz Jr. had to park his vehicle at the edge of the track after a technical defect.

In the third free practice, Rosberg again set the fastest time in 1: 41.856 minutes ahead of Hamilton and Vettel.

Qualifying

The qualifying consisted of three parts with a net running time of 45 minutes. In the first qualifying segment (Q1), the drivers had 18 minutes to qualify for the race. All drivers who achieved a time in the first section that was a maximum of 107 percent of the fastest lap time qualified for the Grand Prix. The best 15 drivers reached the next part. Hamilton was fastest. The Manor pilots, Ericsson, Fernando Alonso and Vettel were eliminated.

The second qualifying segment (Q2) lasted 15 minutes. Hamilton was again fastest. Grosjean parked his vehicle on the side of the track with a gearbox failure and therefore did not drive a timed lap. He was eliminated just like Nasr, Maldonado, Button and Verstappen.

The last section lasted twelve minutes, during which the first ten starting positions were assigned. Rosberg set the fastest time and thus achieved pole position in front of Hamilton and Raikkonen. It was his sixth pole position in a row, his 22nd pole position in the Formula 1 World Championship and the 18th pole position of the season for a Mercedes driver. It was also the 15th time in the season that both Mercedes drivers were on the front row.

Stevens was moved five positions back to use the fifth control electronics, and Grosjean too, because of a gear change. The rear suspension on Merhi's car had to be changed. This was a violation of the parc fermé regulations, so he had to start from the pit lane.

run

At the start Rosberg stayed in the lead, Hamilton got off to a bad start and had to defend against attacks from Pérez and Raikkonen. Alonso and Maldonado collided in the first corner after Alonso and Nasr touched while braking. Maldonado's suspension broke and he was eliminated. Alonso had to have his damaged front wing changed at the pits. Alonso later received a drive-through penalty and two penalty points for causing the collision. At the end of the first lap, Rosberg was leading ahead of Hamilton, Räikkönen, Pérez, Hülkenberg, Ricciardo, Felipe Massa , Sainz, Bottas and Verstappen.

From the sixth lap, the first drivers pitted to change tires. Bottas collided with the approaching button while exiting the pits and damaged the front wing. One lap later he came back into the pits and fell back to penultimate place. Bottas received a five-second penalty for unsafe driving out of the pits. Rosberg, who had increased his lead to more than five seconds, and Raikkonen switched to the harder tire compound at the end of the tenth lap, so Hamilton took the lead from Rosberg and Vettel, who started on the harder tire compound and had not yet been to the pits . After his pit stop, Hamilton fell behind Rosberg and Vettel. With this, Rosberg led ahead of Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Pérez, Ericsson, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Massa. Besides Vettel, Grosjean and Ericsson were not in the pits yet.

Ricciardo, Hülkenberg, Massa and Kwjat passed Ericsson shortly afterwards, Hamilton overtook Vettel on lap 14 and was now about seven seconds behind in second place. Raikkonen also overtook Vettel shortly afterwards. Sainz let his team-mate Verstappen pass without a fight. This braked itself on lap 20 and had to pit with two brake plates on the front axle at the end of the lap to change tires. It fell from twelfth to 15th place. Meanwhile, Hamilton managed to shorten the gap to Rosberg by a few seconds, he drove the fastest laps of the race to date. Vettel and Grosjean changed tires at the end of lap 23, Vettel dropped to sixth and Grosjean to eleventh.

Hamilton continued to drive significantly faster than Rosberg and reduced the gap to less than two seconds. Vettel caught up with Ricciardo and was within striking distance, but Ricciardo pitted to change tires before Vettel could attack. One lap later, Pérez also stopped, so that Vettel was now back in fourth place.

Rosberg drove to the second tire change on lap 31 and fell back to third place. One lap later, Raikkonen also stopped, when the tire was changed there was a problem with the front right tire, so that Raikkonen lost around four seconds and fell behind Vettel. Rosberg drove the fastest race lap with the fresh tires in second place. Raikkonen caught up with Vettel, who shortly thereafter let him pass without a fight. Rosberg caught up with Hamilton around one second per lap. Vettel switched to the softer tire compound on lap 39 and fell back to sixth behind Pérez and Ricciardo. At the end of lap 41, Hamilton came to the pits for the second tire change and again switched to the harder tire compound, he was now 13 seconds behind Rosberg. Vettel passed Ricciardo and immediately pulled away from him.

Hamilton drove the fastest laps and shortened the gap to Rosberg. Meanwhile, Vettel had caught up with Pérez and overtook him on lap 45. Verstappen overtook Button in the battle for twelfth place, when the two vehicles came into contact. Verstappen received a five-second penalty and one penalty point for gaining an advantage by leaving the track. Massa passed Kwjat on lap 48 and was eighth. Grosjean drove significantly faster on the last laps than the drivers in front of him on the softer tire compound and passed Sainz and Kwjat. Verstappen subsequently received a drive-through penalty and two additional penalty points for ignoring blue flags. The drive-through penalty was converted into a 25-second penalty, so Verstappen dropped to 16th place.

Rosberg won the race ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen. It was the sixth win of the season for Rosberg and the 16th for Mercedes, of which the twelfth was a one-two. The top 10 were completed by Vettel, Pérez, Ricciardo, Hülkenberg, Massa, Grosjean and Kwjat.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	06th	Nico Rosberg
Infiniti Red Bull Racing	03	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull RB11	Renault Energy F1 2015	P
	26th	Daniil Kvyat
Williams Martini Racing	19th	Felipe Massa	Williams FW37	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	77	Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Ferrari	05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF15-T	Ferrari 059/4	P
	07th	Kimi Raikkonen
McLaren Honda	14th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren MP4-30	Honda RA615H	P
	22nd	Jenson Button
Sahara Force India F1 Team	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India VJM08	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	11	Sergio Perez
Scuderia Toro Rosso	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso STR10	Renault Energy F1 2015	P
	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.
Lotus F1 Team	08th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E23 Hybrid	Mercedes-Benz PU106B Hybrid	P
	13	Pastor Maldonado
	30th	Jolyon Palmer
Manor Marussia F1 Team	28	Will Stevens	Marussia MR03	Ferrari 059/3	P
	98	Roberto Merhi
Sauber F1 Team	09	Marcus Ericsson	Clean C34	Ferrari 059/4	P
	12	Felipe Nasr

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} The Lotus with the starting number 30 was used in the first free practice for Palmer. Grosjean then took over the vehicle with his number 8 for the rest of the race weekend.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 41.111	1: 40.979	1: 40.237	01
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1: 40.974	1: 40.758	1: 40.614	02
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1: 42,500	1: 41.612	1: 41.051	03
04th	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1: 41.983	1: 41.560	1: 41.184	04th
05	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1: 42.275	1: 41.830	1: 41.444	05
06th	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1: 42.608	1: 41.868	1: 41.656	06th
07th	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1: 41.996	1: 41.925	1: 41.686	07th
08th	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1: 42.303	1: 42.349	1: 41.759	08th
09	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	1: 42.540	1: 42.328	1: 41.933	09
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	1: 42.911	1: 42.482	1: 42.708	10
11	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1: 42.889	1: 42.521	-	11
12	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	1: 42.570	1: 42.668	-	12
13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus Mercedes	1: 42.929	1: 42.807	-	13
14th	Felipe Nasr	Clean Ferrari	1: 42.896	1: 43.614	-	14th
15th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Mercedes	1: 42.585	no time	-	18th
16	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1: 42.941	-	-	15th
17th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	1: 43.187	-	-	16
18th	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	1: 43.838	-	-	17th
19th	Will Stevens	Marussia Ferrari	1: 46.297	-	-	19th
20th	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Ferrari	1: 47.434	-	-	box
107 percent time : 1: 48.042 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 40.974 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ Grosjean was moved five starting positions back because of a gear change.
2. ↑ Stevens was moved five starting positions back because of the use of the fifth control electronics.
3. ↑ Merhi had to start from the pit lane because of a violation of the parc fermé regulations.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	55	2	1: 38: 30.175	01	1: 45.356 (37th)
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	55	2	+ 8.271	02	1: 44,517 (44.)
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	55	2	+ 19,430	03	1: 44.942 (47th)
04th	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	55	2	+ 43.735	15th	1: 44,550 (48th)
05	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	55	2	+1: 03,952	04th	1: 45.892 (30.)
06th	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	55	2	+1: 05.010	05	1: 46,305 (46.)
07th	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	55	2	+1: 33.618	07th	1: 47.064 (29.)
08th	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	55	2	+1: 37.751	08th	1: 46.984 (33.)
09	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Mercedes	55	2	+1: 38,201	18th	1: 45.859 (47th)
10	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	55	2	+1: 42.371	09	1: 46.882 (27.)
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	55	2	+1: 43.525	10	1: 46.998 (38.)
12	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	54	2	+ 1 lap	12	1: 47.509 (29.)
13	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	54	3	+ 1 lap	06th	1: 46.464 (45th)
14th	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	54	2	+ 1 lap	17th	1: 46.517 (48th)
15th	Felipe Nasr	Clean Ferrari	54	3	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 46.424 (46.)
16	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	54	3	+ 1 lap	11	1: 45.746 (40th)
17th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	53	4th	+ 2 rounds	16	1: 44.796 (52nd)
18th	Will Stevens	Marussia Ferrari	53	2	+ 2 rounds	19th	1: 49.610 (53.)
19th	Roberto Merhi	Marussia Ferrari	52	1	+ 3 rounds	box	1: 51.213 (26.)
-	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus Mercedes	01	0	DNF	13	-

Remarks

1. ↑ Verstappen received a drive-through penalty that was converted to a 25-second penalty for ignoring blue flags.

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 381 02  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 322 03  Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 278 04th  Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 150 05  Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 136 06th  Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 121 07th  Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 95 08th  Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 92 09  Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 78 10  Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 58 11  Romain Grosjean Lotus Mercedes 51

Item driver constructor Points 12  Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 49 13  Felipe Nasr Clean Ferrari 27 14th  Pastor Maldonado Lotus Mercedes 27 15th  Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 18th 16  Jenson Button McLaren Honda 16 17th  Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 11 18th  Marcus Ericsson Clean Ferrari 9 19th  Roberto Merhi Marussia Ferrari 0 20th  Alexander Rossi Marussia Ferrari 0 21st  Will Stevens Marussia Ferrari 0 -  Kevin Magnussen McLaren Honda 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 1  Mercedes 703 2  Ferrari 428 3  Williams-Mercedes 257 4th  Red Bull-Renault 187 5  Force India-Mercedes 136

Item constructor Points 06th  Lotus Mercedes 78 07th  Toro Rosso-Renault 67 08th  Clean Ferrari 36 09  McLaren Honda 27 10  Marussia Ferrari 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norman Fischer: Soft always works: Pirelli announces the last tire allocations. Motorsport-Total.com, October 13, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
2. ^ Maria Reyer: Abu Dhabi: Two DRS zones on the Yas Marina Circuit. Motorsport-Total.com, November 25, 2015, accessed November 25, 2015 . 
3. ^ Maria Reyer: Abu Dhabi: Derek Warwick as a race steward in action. Motorsport-Total.com, November 25, 2015, accessed November 25, 2015 . 
4. ^ GP Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi / 1st free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, November 27, 2015, accessed November 27, 2015 . 
5. ^ GP Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi / 2nd free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, November 27, 2015, accessed November 27, 2015 . 
6. ^ GP Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi / 3rd free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, November 28, 2015, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Dominik Sharaf, Heiko Stritzke: Gearbox damage thwarted Grojean's qualifying. Motorsport-Total.com, November 28, 2015, accessed November 28, 2015 .