The 2015 Formula One season is officially over. It was determined many races ago that Mercedes would wrap up the World Constructors’ Championship title and Lewis Hamilton would take his third World Drivers’ Championship title. There were no big prizes to race for this weekend, but that didn’t stop the drivers from taking their cars out onto the track.
There was no time the drivers to hit the stores for some Black Friday shopping, as the action started on Friday. Lewis Hamilton narrowly took the top of the time charts from his teammate in free practice one. The lap times in the session were very close and the top six drivers were all within one second of each other. Free practice two was Nico Rosberg’s time to shine, taking the top of the time charts by margin almost equivalent of Hamilton’s in the first session of the day. It was another close day. The top nine teams were within a second of the pace set my Rosberg. Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and Force India were the top teams of the day. Sergio Pérez was the shocker of the day when he improved his lap time by 2.3 seconds to claim third position in the second free practice session.
Saturday was a tragedy for Sebastian Vettel. The first session of the day, free practice three, was a fairly regular day. The Mercedes were once again on top of the time charts, with Rosberg leading the way. The two Ferrari cars sandwiched Sergio Pérez. The lap times were close one again, with the top six being within one second. The qualifying session was quite interesting for Vettel, being eliminated in the first round of qualifying due to a miscommunication about lap times from the team. As a result, he started from 16th position on the grid. At the front of the grid, things were quite interesting. Lewis Hamilton led the first two sessions of qualifying, but was beat by Rosberg in the final qualifying session. This was also the case of Sergio Pérez, who was beat by Kimi Räikkönen. The qualifying lap times were not as close as they were in the qualifying session, as only the top four were within a second of the pace set by Rosberg in the third free practice session.
The race day proved to be a quite entertaining end to the season. The first lap was quite thrilling. Fernando Alonso pinched Felipe Nasr in turn one and made contact, sending the McLaren into Pastor Maldonado. The damaged Alonso made it back to the pits, but Maldonado’s suspension was a write off. Alonso was given a drive-through penalty as a result. Later in the first lap, Sebastian Vettel made contact with Max Verstappen under braking in turn 17. It was tyre to tyre contact, so both drivers were able to continue without losing time. The first lap was great, with lots of shuffling in the middle and rear of the field, whereas the front of the field remained unchanged. Daniil Kvyat was the first to pit for tyres, opening a very early pit window. The rest of the drivers followed shortly after. Valtteri Bottas was handed a five-second time penalty, which he served during a later pitstop, for an unsafe release when he ran into Jenson Button in the pitlane. Vettel made a great recovery from his poor grid position and was in the top five, but began to struggle on the tyres on lap 14. There were a lot of battles and brave moves, particularly in turns 8 and 9, as well as the turn 11 through 14 sequence. There were a lot of battles, which DRS played a massive factor because the zones are so close together. The Toro Rosso had a great battle early in the race, which resulted in Max Verstappen getting past. Shortly after, however, Verstappen had a massive lockup and had to pit for fresh tyres. Shortly after the halfway point, Hamilton began to close the gap to Rosberg, as the lead Mercedes began to struggle with tyre degradation. In the end, Hamilton wasn’t able to catch his teammate, as Rosberg takes the final win of the season and Kimi Räikkönen wrapped up the podium.
The season is officially over, but the drivers will still have one more day behind the wheel of the car for the Pirelli tyre test at the Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday, where they will be testing the 2016 tyre compounds. Although there won’t be any racing, you can fulfill your Formula One addiction with the various articles that will be popping up throughout the winter break, here on Racing Clothesline!
