Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates on the podium. Formula One World Championship, Rd19, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Race, Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Sunday, 23 November 2014
Jim Clark and Graham Hill, who both became double champions in the 1960s, are the only other Britons to have won more than one world championship.
Hamilton is the 16th multiple champion in Formula One history, the first Mercedes drivers’ champion since Juan Manuel Fangio and the first non-German driver to win 11 or more races in one season. The Briton also delivered Mercedes their 16th victory of the season, meaning the Silver Arrows now have sole ownership of the record for most wins in a season which had previously been jointly held by McLaren (1988) and Ferrari (2002, 2004).
Behind Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas came home in second and third to give Williams their first double podium finish since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. It was Bottas’ sixth podium of the season - only Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo scored more in 2014 - and helped him see off Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to seal fourth place in the final driver standings.
Williams also sealed third place in the constructors’ standings - their best placing since 2003 when they finished second.
Elsewhere, Jenson Button finished fifth on the day that he equaled Ayrton Senna’s tally of race starts for McLaren (96). Only Alain Prost (107), Lewis Hamilton (110), Mika Hakkinen (131) and David Coulthard (150) have started more races for the Woking team, but will Button get to add to his total next season?
Speaking of McLaren, the Abu Dhabi race saw the curtain come down on their 19-year relationship with engine partner Mercedes. When the pair came together in 1995 Jan Magnussen was one of McLaren’s drivers, while rather fittingly his son Kevin was behind the wheel in their final event together.
Force India ended the season as they began it - with a double points finish - whilst Sebastian Vettel signed off his Red Bull career with eighth place. Sadly for the German, he ended the year without a race victory - the first time a defending champion has failed to win a race since Jacques Villeneuve in 1998.
In other news, Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez finished outside the top ten, meaning Sauber finished the season without scoring a single point - the first time that has happened since they entered F1 racing in 1993. Meanwhile, Caterham’s British rookie Will Stevens became the 753rd driver - and the 143rd Briton - to start a round of the world championship. He finished 17th, a lap down on race winner Hamilton.
Finally, Nico Rosberg, whose championship challenge was ended by mechanical trouble in Abu Dhabi, recorded his third non-points finish of the year at Yas Marina - the same number as team mate Lewis Hamilton - but he still finished with the fourth highest points total for a season in history.