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Geoffrey Harris24 Nov 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Second title even better for Lewis Hamilton

Brit wins the battle of Mercedes teammates for F1 world championship while Aussie Daniel Ricciardo ends the season with another storming drive

Lewis Hamilton has won his second Formula One World Championship and says this one with the Mercedes factory team is "way, way" better than the first six years ago with McLaren.

Hamilton's 11th win of the 19-race season in Abu Dhabi overnight gave him the title by a comfortable 67 points – thanks to the double points in the finale – after his teammate and rival Nico Rosberg finished only 14th because of trouble with his car's hybrid system for more than half the race.

Australia's Daniel Ricciardo completed what he called "pretty much a perfect season" with a brilliant fourth place, having started from the pitlane after his and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull cars were ruled illegal because of their front wings flexing too much in qualifying.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, the man Hamilton pipped for the 2008 title, and young Finn Valterri Bottas ended the Williams team's great comeback season with second and third places.

While Mercedes engines had powered cars and drivers to world titles in the past couple of decades, Hamilton has become the first driver to win the championship in a Mercedes chassis since the great Argentinian Juan-Manuel Fangio in 1955.

"This is the greatest day of my life ... 2008 was a great year in my life, [but] the feeling I have now is way, way past that. The greatest feeling ever," the 29-year-old Hamilton said.

He joined Sir Jackie Stewart and the late Jim Clark and Graham Hill as Britain's multiple F1 world champions.

Rosberg, the German son of Finland's 1982 world champion – and winner of Australia's first F1 grand prix in Adelaide in 1985 – Keke, generously congratulated Hamilton, the teammate with whom relations had been so strained at times this year, on having done a better job than him.

Rosberg won five GPs for the year, although he outperformed Hamilton in qualifying.

Hamilton came to the fore in the second half of the season, winning six of the last seven races and finishing second in the other.

Ricciardo was "really happy" at the end of his first season at Red Bull Racing, having quite comprehensively upstaged the team's world champion of the past four years, Sebastian Vettel.  

Ricciardo was the only driver other than the Mercedes factory pair to win a GP this season, with his debut victory in Canada and others in Hungary and Belgium.

Of his race in Abu Dhabi, where he finished 37.2 seconds behind Hamilton and within 10 seconds of the podium, Ricciardo said: "I think it was pretty much faultless from all sides – from the strategy, to myself and the pit stops.

"Everything was good, so we did everything we needed to.

"I had fun passing. It was pretty much what I asked for.

"One spot better [third] would have been nice, but fourth is really cool from the pit lane.

"It's been pretty much a perfect season, as perfect as it can be without holding a world title, so no real regrets, no complaints.

"It's nice to not only start the season well [he was second at the Australian GP in Melbourne but disqualified because his car's fuel flow was too rapid], but to finish it well also.

"I think all the way through it [the season] was good – we had a strong [northern] summer as well, so the start, middle and end were pretty good!"

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said of Ricciardo's performance in the day-night Abu Dhabi race: "A phenomenal drive from Daniel to drive from the pit lane to P4, an incredible recovery after the circumstances of Saturday, signing off a fantastic season for Daniel finishing third in the world championship and an unbelievable year."

Vettel finished eighth in his last race before his move to Ferrari next season, behind the Force India cars of German Nico Hulkenberg and Mexican Sergio Perez – which trailed the fourth-placed McLaren of Jenson Button, for whom it may have been the last GP.

That meant Renault-powered Ricciardo was the only driver without a Mercedes engine in the top seven finishers.

Ferrari's winless season ended with the departing Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen ninth and 10th and speculation about the future of Ferrari chief Marco Mattiaci after only months in the job.


Formula One World Championship final driver standings after 19 races
– 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 384 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 317; 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 238; 4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 186; 5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 167; 6. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 161; 7. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 134; 8. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 126; 9. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 96; 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 59; 11. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, McLaren-Mercedes) 55; 12. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 55; 13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Renault) 22; 14. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 8; 15. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso-Renault) 8; 16. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Renault) 2; 17. Jules Bianchi (France, Marussia) 2.
      
F1 constructor standings – 1. Mercedes 701 points; 2. Red Bull-Renault 405; 3. Williams-Mercedes 320; 4. Ferrari 216; 5. McLaren-Mercedes 181; 6. Force India-Mercedes 155; 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 30; 8. Lotus-Renault 10; 9. Marussia-Ferrari 2.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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