Yas Marina, 23 November

Fernando Alonso finished his final race for Scuderia Ferrari in ninth place, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen right behind him in tenth place. Not a great end to a difficult season, but the 6 points scored- double points remember – were enough to keep the Prancing Horse, fourth in the Constructors’ championship in between Williams and McLaren.
Fernando ends his time with the Prancing Horse down in sixth in the Drivers’ classification and Kimi is twelfth.
Lewis Hamilton led right from the start to take his eleventh win of the year and the Drivers’ crown for the second time, and for Mercedes it was their first since Juan Manuel Fangio did it for them in 1955.
After the Red Bulls were disqualified from qualifying and started from pit lane, Kimi and Fernando were promoted to 7th and 8th respectively on the grid. They both immediately made up two places once the lights went out. Hamilton went straight into the lead like a rocket from second place ahead of pole man Rosberg, with Massa third, as his Williams team-mate Bottas dropped to eighth. Then came Button in fourth followed by Kimi and Fernando ahead of Kvyat. In the early stages the two Prancing Horse men were putting fourth placed Button under pressure.


The Englishman managed to pull away so that by lap 4, the Ferrari men were fighting between themselves with Kvyat and Bottas chasing them and the Russian Toro Rosso driver got past the Spaniard on lap 5, which prompted Fernando to get on the radio to announce, “I’ve been passed, in this lap,” making him the first to pit to switch from Supersoft to Soft. In fact this early stop and the same for Kimi who came in next time round, is what ruined their race. But with excessive tyre degradation on the Supersoft tyres, they had no choice in the matter. Inevitably, this put both F14 Ts into slower traffic and from then on the two Ferrari men hovered on the edge of the points for the rest of the 55 laps.
Any chance that Rosberg had of taking the title effectively ended on lap 25, when his Mercedes lost its ERS and he gradually dropped down the order. However, Hamilton didn’t have things all his own way, as Massa in the Williams came charging after him in the closing stages on fresh Supersofts. The Brazilian had to settle for second in the end, ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Ricciardo drove an outstanding race, taking his Red Bull from a pit lane start to fourth at the flag, while the rest of the points went to Button fifth for McLaren, followed by the Force India duo of Hulkenberg and Perez, while our new signing for 2015, Vettel was eighth.
Now the Scuderia’s focus is fixed firmly on 2015, starting on Tuesday when the team takes part in the final two day test session of the season here in Abu Dhabi. At the wheel of the F14 T will be Ferrari Driver Academy student Raffaele Marciello and Kimi Raikkonen.