Rosberg ends the season in style

Winner and star of the race

Where was this form at the beginning of the year? Nico Rosberg took his sixth win of the year and his third in a row. In fact it's been all Rosberg since Lewis wrapped up the championship in America.

Nico was dominant in qualifying, over a third of a second clear as he took his sixth pole position in succession. He streaked away at the start and in truth despite Lewis coming at him in the middle of the race had everything under control.

Hamilton has complained that he feels the way the car has been developed over the latter part of the season has kept him from finding that final bit of pace, but let's not take anything away from Rosberg, he has been in fine form and this is brilliant momentum to take him into the winter and will have him very hopeful for 2016.

But of course 2016 is a whole new beginning. Mercedes should still be strong but Ferrari are after them with particularly Sebastian Vettel surely a major championship challenger next year, but perhaps more importantly for Rosberg, Hamilton will have reset. It should not be forgotten he took the title this year with relative ease, clinching it with three rounds to spare. 

Hamilton has been living the high life even more since he won the title and it's got to be said that even though it might be that he's not as comfortable with the car it's also not too difficult to suggest that perhaps he's taken his eye off the game just a little since he took the big prize. 

With the season starting afresh I expect Lewis to come back stronger and more focused which is when we'll really see if Rosberg can handle another bruising title campaign. With Vettel looking like he'll be part of the fight next year it's even more important that Rosberg can start as strongly as he's finished this year otherwise he may get relegated to a support role for Lewis, something I'm sure he wouldn't enjoy at all. For now though, Rosberg will be feeling confident and that's a good feeling to have as we start the off-season.

Lewis Hamilton finished second and was again arguing with the team about strategy as he tried to get ahead of his team mate, but once again he was found lacking. I'm sure he'll come back stronger as long as he doesn't let those thoughts that Mercedes were trying to help Rosberg out in these last few races.

Kimi Raikkonen produced probably his best weekend of the year with strong qualifying and racing to finish third, while his Ferrari team mate Vettel fought from 15th on the grid to finish fourth. 

Force India's Sergio Perez was a contender for star of the race as he started fourth and finished fifth in what has been a great run of form for the Mexican. His team mate Nico Hulkenberg was way off his pace in seventh. Splitting the Force India's was Daniel Ricciardo who drove a feisty race for sixth, while Williams disappointed as they released Valtteri Bottas into Jenson Button during a pit stop earning him a penalty and a new front wing. Felipe Massa wasn't much better off as he lacked pace for only eighth. A disappointing end to 2015 for Williams.

Romain Grosjean gave a great showing after a grid penalty dropped him to 18th at the start. He rose to ninth with some great battling and a good strategy. It was his last race for Lotus as he goes to join new team Haas next year. Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat claimed the last point.

The battles

Once again we relied on the midfield to provide our entertainment after what was another less than thrilling race. Carlos Sainz was the stronger Toro Rosso driver this weekend with Max Verstappen suffering a scrappy Sunday evening. Jenson Button in the McLaren enjoyed his fighting despite only finishing 13th. Fernando Alonso wanted to retire early after taking out Pastor Maldonado at the start and having to change his front wing and then getting a drive through penalty. It's not been a good year for him. Rumours continue to circulate that the Spaniard may not even drive next year if Honda and McLaren haven't seriously raised their game by the first test.

Reflection

It's been another dominant campaign for Mercedes, but unlike last year until the title was sewn up, Rosberg hasn't been able to match Hamilton for much of the season resulting in a rather uninspired title fight. However, this shouldn't take anything away from Lewis who has driven beautifully for most of the year. His qualifying speed was electric for the first two thirds of the season and when that hasn't been there, he's been aggressive off the start and put Rosberg in his place. I don't think he'll be overly concerned by Rosberg's recent run of form, Hamilton is still the champion after all. 

It's good that Ferrari have slowly begun to catch Mercedes. The scarlet cars are not quite able to match them yet, but another winter could see them make the step up to be silver beaters. Vettel will certainly be ready, he's been rejuvenated this year after struggling during his final season at Red Bull.

At the other end of the grid, the once mighty giant of Formula 1 McLaren will be hoping for something special from Honda over the winter. By all accounts the chassis wasn't too bad, but if Honda can't find the solutions they seek it'll be another tough year facing them.

Special mentions for Perez, Ricciardo and Grosjean, who I think have all delivered strong campaigns this year. Perhaps though it is Max Verstappen who could well be many peoples driver of the year just for his entertainment factor, he has produced some truly inspired driving. Many times this season he has livened up some fairly insipid races.

It's a fact that this year hasn't produced the racing at the front that everyone desires. Sometimes sport is like that though and we shouldn't have overreaction, Formula 1 is still a fine product, and as rules stay the same so competition will close up. I expect a far fiercer battle at the front next season.

Of course this year has been tormented by politics, particularly with regards to money and teams and even the sports rule makers and owners never seeming to be willing to look at the big picture. Hopefully after two teams made a complaint to the European Competition commission there will be some much needed action to put the teams and the sport on a much more even footing and we can concentrate on the racing. For too long have we had to worry about teams and circuit finances and it's time it stopped.

Already teams will be focusing on next season, there's a tyre test next week in Abu Dhabi before real testing for 2016 gets going at the beginning of February. Formula 1 never rests...

photos taken from auto-motor-und-sport.de and autosport.com