Abu Dhabi: Germany's Nico Rosberg celebrated his first Formula One world championship on Sunday after finishing runner-up in a tense Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton amid accusations of 'dirty tricks'.
After all the suspense and expectation, Hamilton chalked up his 10th win of the season, and fourth in a row, but was powerless to do anything about the championship outcome despite making every effort.
His attempt to push Rosberg into the clutches of those behind him, by deliberately slowing the pace in the closing laps to the concern of team bosses, produced a nail-biting finish with the top four separated by just 1.6 seconds.
"Lewis, this is Paddy we need you to pick up the pace to win this race," the team's technical head Paddy Lowe told the Briton over the team radio.
"Right now, I'm losing the world championship so I'm not bothered if I'm going to lose the race," replied Hamilton, who crossed the line 0.4 seconds ahead of Rosberg with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel third and a further 0.4 behind.
"It was tricky at the end there with Lewis playing some dirty tricks," commented four-time champion Vettel over the radio.
Rosberg, who becomes his country's third champion after Michael Schumacher and Vettel, held his nerve and position just as he has throughout a season in which he has insisted on taking one race at a time.
As he crossed the line, the son of 1982 title-winner Keke Rosberg let out a whoop of relief and joy as he became only the second son of a world champion, after Britain's Damon Hill, to take the crown.
Rosberg could be considered a chip off the old block after the Mercedes driver followed his Finnish father in winning the Formula One title, but that would be a mistake.
A glance at old photographs and race reports serves to highlight the different eras and different personalities, even if both are now only the second set of father and son world champions.
The moustachioed Keke was swashbuckling, hard-charging, fast and muscular behind the wheel as well as being a noted chain-smoker in an era when drivers could not always be sure of surviving the season.
At Silverstone in 1985, the Finn became the first driver to lap a circuit at an average speed of more than 160 miles per hour in his Williams. When he got out of the car, he lit up a cigarette.
Nico, a personable and healthy-living family man with an easy charm sometimes mistaken for blandness, is much more likely to be seen tucking into an organic salad or devouring reams of data.
"Keke was very demanding... let's just say he didn't interact with the boys very well. He turned up, drove the car and went away again," recalled former McLaren stalwart Dave Ryan who worked with him in 1986."But he was a huge personality."
Nobody would have dared to bestow on Keke the nickname 'Britney', after pop star Britney Spears, that Nico was given early in his career by Williams teammate Mark Webber in a reference to his blond good looks.
Expensively educated - he had a place to study aeronautical engineering at London's Imperial College - and fluent in five languages, Nico was born in Germany but grew up in a life of luxury in Monaco.
The 31-year-old is very different also to teammate and triple champion Hamilton, a regular in the celebrity gossip pages who spends plenty of time in America hanging out with friends from the worlds of film and music.
Indeed, there are those who have questioned whether he is even a worthy winner. Any driver who under-estimates Rosberg, and just how much hunger and desire he has, does so at their peril however.
Those who point to Hamilton's reliability woes, and blown engines, as a big factor in the title outcome are ignoring the German's consistency and sheer persistence. (Agencies)
