The 10 moments that decided the title

Nico Rosberg became Formula 1's newest world champion last Sunday in Abu Dhabi, finishing second in the season finale to title rival Lewis Hamilton.

In the third-straight year of Mercedes' dominance, Rosberg and Hamilton played out another private fight for F1's biggest prize. They clashed twice and Hamilton also had to deal with unreliability. Both drivers spent time at the top of the standings and won 19 races between them.

BEN ANDERSON and EDD STRAW identify the key moments that led to Rosberg's maiden title.

HAMILTON'S GREMLINS BEGIN THEIR WORK

Rosberg won the first two races of the season by being better than Hamilton off the startline. China is where Hamilton's reliability woes first struck.

He came into round three facing a grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change (due to damage suffered in Bahrain), which an MGU-H failure in qualifying compounded.

Hamilton elected to start from last on the grid instead of from the pits, but got tangled up in the aftermath of a Turn 1 incident between the Ferraris and Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull.

Hamilton could only recover to seventh in his hobbled car, as Rosberg took early charge of the title battle by making it three wins on the bounce.

"I definitely don't feel the dark cloud that I've had in the past," said Hamilton.

"Of course it's a trying time and there are lots of different emotions and thoughts going through my mind, as you see the season started the wrong way, you see the championship moving further away from you, but this is a part of motor racing.

"Through these experiences, not only myself but my mechanics, my engineers, it brings us closer, it makes us stronger."

Hamilton was philosophical, but Rosberg was firmly in charge already.

Standings after three races: 1 Nico Rosberg, 75; 2 Lewis Hamilton, 39; 3 Daniel Ricciardo, 36.

WINNING AT RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Two weeks after that ERS failure in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton suffered an MGU-K failure during Q2 in Russia.

This meant he couldn't run in Q3 and started down in 10th, while Rosberg cruised to an easy victory - his fourth on the trot since the start of the season, and seventh overall if you go back to the closing stages of 2015, to establish a 43-point lead over Hamilton.

While this was a good weekend for Rosberg, it might have been even better. Hamilton got to within seven-and-a-half seconds of the leader after carving his way up to second, but came close to retiring with a water-pressure problem.

"It was a miracle to get Lewis's car home," said Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe. "He had no water pressure at all.

"When he asked if it had stabilised we weren't lying when we said it had - it was zero! There were a lot of crossed fingers."

Standings after four races: 1 Rosberg, 100; 2 Hamilton, 57; 3 Kimi Raikkonen, 43.

MERCAGEDDON PART ONE

Rosberg's sweep around the outside of Hamilton at the first corner of the fifth race of the season should have laid the foundations for his fifth consecutive victory of 2016.

"I was really excited about the first corner move to get the lead, and from then on I was pretty sure it was my race to win," said Rosberg.

"Coming out of Turn 3, I noticed I was down on engine power, which in hindsight is because I was in an incorrect [engine] mode."

Hamilton spotted the de-rate light flash on the rear of Rosberg's Mercedes through Turn 3, and Rosberg hovered in the middle of the track, watching his team-mate in his mirrors as he changed the settings.

But Hamilton had a run, and as Rosberg closed off the inside, he kept his foot in and took to the grass. Inevitably, Hamilton lost control and the result was mutual annihilation and, ultimately, victory for Red Bull debutant Max Verstappen.

Standings after five races: 1 Rosberg, 100; 2 Raikkonen, 61; 3 Hamilton, 57.

ROSBERG'S BAKU BRILLIANCE

It seemed as though control of this battle was slipping through Rosberg's fingers after two poor races in Monaco and Canada, but he turned things back around with a commanding display around the streets of Azerbaijan.

This was the first weekend of the season where Rosberg emphatically outpaced Hamilton, dealing much better with necessary set-up changes made between Friday practice and Saturday qualifying.

Rosberg bagged pole as Hamilton went off several times then crashed in the crucial session. Rosberg also won the race comfortably as Hamilton struggled to progress from 10th on the grid.

Hamilton rooted his tyres in traffic, and was also hampered by a de-rating power unit that he couldn't switch back into the correct mode without the help the radio rules prevented Mercedes from giving him.

Hamilton struggled home fifth as Rosberg - who also ended up in the wrong engine mode at one point but had a much easier process to correct the problem - cruised to a 17s win over Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.

Hamilton's momentum had been arrested. Rosberg was now firmly back in command of the title race.

Standings after eight races: 1 Rosberg, 141; 2 Hamilton, 117; 3 Sebastian Vettel, 96.

MERCAGEDDON PART 2

The two title rivals collided again in July's Austrian Grand Prix, as Hamilton attempted to wrest back the lead of a race he was in control of until Mercedes decided to switch his strategy mid-race.

Hamilton hunted down Rosberg, who clouted the apex kerb heavily at Turn 1 on the final lap as his team-mate gained. Hamilton attempted to pass around the outside at the Turn 2 hairpin, but Rosberg ran him off the road, and the two collided as Hamilton resolutely maintained his trajectory.

Hamilton survived the contact to win the race, while Rosberg's front wing folded underneath his car, and he trailed home fourth, behind Max Verstappen's Red Bull and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.

Rosberg was penalised an incidental 10s, but the bigger ramifications came later, with Mercedes boss Toto Woff threatening team orders, or even benching the drivers if they collided again.

This was the closest Mercedes came to reneging on its pledge to leave Hamilton and Rosberg free to race for the championship.

Rosberg showed yet again that his technique in the heat of battle needs refinement, while Hamilton slashed Rosberg's points lead dramatically after the disappointment of Baku.

Standings after nine races: 1 Rosberg, 153; 2 Hamilton, 142; 3 Vettel, 96; 4 Raikkonen, 96.

SINGAPORE: THE BEST NICO ROSBERG

Along with Baku, Singapore was the only other race where Rosberg absolutely bossed Hamilton, who had fought his way into the championship lead before the summer break.

Rosberg's advantage of 0.704s over his team-mate in qualifying meant Daniel Ricciardo was able to split the pair in qualifying. Things remained the same in the race, with Rosberg seizing the lead in the championship back with victory while Hamilton took third.

"I have known Nico since 2013 and this is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout the weekend since then," said Wolff.

"We have the tendency of saying that Lewis has awesome pace, and this is what we have seen from Nico this weekend - he was just blindingly fast."

Hamilton, by comparison, never got into the groove or found the right set-up, after losing track time to a hydraulic valve problem in FP2.

Standings after 15 races: 1 Rosberg, 273; 2 Hamilton, 265; 3 Ricciardo, 179.

HAMILTON STRUCK DOWN BY HIS HIGHER POWER

Of all the races Hamilton could point towards in derailing his bid to defend his world championship crown, October's Malaysian Grand Prix was undoubtedly the most pivotal.

Hamilton had this race completely sewn up, while Rosberg was battling back through the field after getting turned around by Vettel's Ferrari at Turn 1 on the first lap.

Hamilton looked set to earn a 13-point swing in his favour, thanks to the Red Bulls running comfortably in second and third, but then his new Mercedes engine suffered an unexpected failure of its big-end bearing.

Just like that, 25 points went up in engine smoke for Hamilton, allowing Rosberg to extend his championship advantage with a third placed finish.

"I understand very well how Lewis feels," Rosberg said. "I've been there in 2014 when we were fighting for the championship - I had two major failures and I know it feels horrible.

"I'm sure he feels so gutted, especially when you deserve to win the race and the technology lets go."

Hamilton demanded answers from Mercedes over the apparent chronic unreliability of his car, even suggesting a higher power might be working against him as his dream slipped further from his reach.

Standings after 16 races: 1 Rosberg, 288; 2 Hamilton, 265; 3 Ricciardo, 204.

ROSBERG TAKES DESTINY OUT OF HAMILTON'S HANDS

In spite of all that went before, Hamilton came into the following weekend's Japanese Grand Prix knowing all he needed to do was win every remaining race and he would still be crowned champion.

All F1 drivers love Suzuka, Hamilton too of course, but he admitted this was not a track he excelled at. That made him edgy, and he decided he needed to do something special with the car to outwit his main rival.

It didn't work, and by the time Hamilton had migrated back towards Rosberg's set-up, Rosberg had just enough margin in hand to steal pole position. There was only 0.013s in it, but that was all Rosberg needed.

Hamilton fluffed his start from the damp side of the grid, and spent the race battling back to third, finishing behind Verstappen after getting repelled aggressively while mounting a late bid to snatch second place back.

Rosberg sailed on serenely to victory, and with it took the destiny of the title race out of Hamilton's hands. From this point forward, winning races wouldn't be enough for Hamilton to get the job done. He would need help from elsewhere. Rosberg was now firmly in the driving seat.

Standings after 17 races: 1 Rosberg, 313; 2 Hamilton, 280; 3 Ricciardo, 212.

ROSBERG'S LAST-MINUTE Q3 SAVE IN MEXICO

Rosberg was having a difficult weekend in Mexico, and after the first runs in Q3 he was down in fourth behind Hamilton and the two Red Bull drivers.

Given he did not seem to be at one with the car or the circuit, there was every chance he might lose significant ground in the standings.

Then, he dug deep and delivered a lap that didn't seem to be in him. While he was 0.254s slower than his team-mate, it crucially got him onto the front row.

From there, he survived a wheelbanging moment with Verstappen at the first corner to take second place and ensure he lost only seven points to Hamilton.

"Some weekends you find your way straightaway and others it takes a bit longer to find the rhythm," explained Rosberg. "This was one of those where it took all the way to qualifying to get there."

Rosberg was steadily inching towards his ultimate goal.

Standings after 19 races: 1 Rosberg, 349; 2 Hamilton, 330; 3 Ricciardo, 242.

DODGING THE BULLETS IN ABU DHABI

On paper, what Rosberg did in Abu Dhabi was straightforward - second on the grid and second in the race in the best car in the field. But there's a good reason for him describing it as the toughest race of his life.

Needing only to finish in the top three even if Hamilton won, the race was 98 minutes of tortuous tension for Rosberg. With Hamilton showing no inclination to pull away, and keen to ensure Rosberg remained under pressure from the chasing Red Bulls and Ferraris, there was no margin for error.

The first curveball was Verstappen, who ran long after spinning at Turn 1, with Rosberg playing it very conservatively while running third behind him, before finally having no choice but to make a bold passing move.

In the closing stages, Hamilton ratcheted up the tension by backing Rosberg into the chasers, led first by Verstappen and then Vettel's Ferrari.

But Rosberg stood firm, finishing second as the top four cars crossed the line separated by 1.685s. Champion at last.

Final standings: 1 Rosberg, 385; 2 Hamilton, 380; 3 Ricciardo, 256.