Nico Rosberg beats Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi practice

German Roseberg beat his team Mercedes team mate and rival lewis Hamilton in the final Abu Dhabi practice on Friday. He was ahead of him by 0.369 seconds after losing out to the Briton in both sessions on Friday at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Friday final practice session. It was the first time in three attempts that Rosberg had been his Mercedes partner in practice.

Rosberg beat Hamilton by 0.128secs on the harder tyre earlier in the session. The 29-year-old German responded to Hamilton’s domination of both practice sessions on Friday with a best lap of one minute and 41.424 seconds. A second-placed finish on Sunday is enough for Hamilton to win the title.

The two Mercedes drivers again appeared to be in a race of their own – their closest challenger, Williams’s Felipe Massa, was 1.005secs behind.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who finished with fourth position in a first session but missed all of Friday’s second session because of an electronics failure, then parked up and watched the rest of the session from the Ferrari building. The double world champion, who will drive for McLaren next season and be will replaced at by Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel, whose signing by Ferrari was announced on Thursday, was fifth fastest, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams’s Valtteri Bottas. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 10, with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen 11th.

McLaren are yet to decide their driver line-up for the race and Chairman Ron Dennis is still trying to make up his mind whether to keep Button or Magnussen as Alonso’s team-mate.

Dennis told BBC Sport: “The music hasn’t stopped and a range of things could happen on Sunday that would influence the decisions that haven’t been taken.”

 “Clinical and emotionless analysis of what the options are, we will have more data to do that on Monday,” added.