Nico Rosberg of Mercedes won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to claim his third victory in succession and give world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton pause for thought going into 2016.
Hamilton had dominated the championship to win his third world title with three races to spare but Rosberg, second in the standings, has put his disappointment behind him to triumph in the remaining races Mexico, Brazil and now Abu Dhabi.
"Austin (the US Grand Prix) was the low point of my season, since then I've come back a lot stronger," Rosberg said in his podium interview. "I'm really excited about how the season went. Next year could start tomorrow for me - I don't need a holiday."
The German, who started on pole position, posted a winning time of one hour 38 minutes 30.175 seconds with Hamilton 8.271 seconds behind and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen claiming third, 19.430 adrift.
Rosberg's sixth victory of the season is only the second time, after Sebastian Vettel in 2010, the pole holder went on to win in Abu Dhabi in six races at the 5.554-kilometre Yas Marina Circuit.
"It's always tough to race Lewis, he's one of the best out there, so it's even better to win against that opposition," Rosberg added. "It's a reat battle every time and I look forward to more of them next year."
A quick start from Rosberg ensured the race was his to lose from the beginning and though Hamilton came under pressure from Raikkonen at the first turn, he held on to trail his colleague by 1.4 seconds after the opening lap.
Rosberg and Hamilton pitted for the first time on laps 11 and 12 respectively and when the race settled down again the Briton trailed by nearly four seconds.
Hamilton had emerged behind Vettel, who had charged through the field from 15th, but promptly passed him on the straight on lap 14. However, by this point Rosberg had increased his lead to a gap of six seconds.
Vettel, who finally came in for fresh tyres on lap 24, allowed Raikkonen to pass him and eventually finished fourth behind his team-mate.
Meanwhile, Hamilton had been quickest on the track and had cut Rosberg's advantage to just a second when the German pitted again on lap 32.
Hamilton stayed out in front until lap 42 but this long spell allowed Rosberg to close in and when Hamilton re-emerged on soft rather than super-soft tyres, the German led by more than 12 seconds.
"In hindsight, once Nico had pitted I probably should have backed off and made my tyres last longer," Hamilton said. "As that didn't work out, going long probably wasn't the best thing to do."
The gap again whittled down by the Brit but he was never close enough to put any pressure on Rosberg, who took a comfortable chequered flag.
Raikkonen's podium was enough to secure fourth overall in the drivers' championship as he skipped fellow-Finn Valtteri Bottas of Williams. Bottas' hopes vanished on lap nine when he clipped Jenson Button of McLaren in the pit lane, had to pit again immediately and was penalized for causing the collision.
"We started better this season but it's not been an ideal year," said Raikkonen. "This weekend was better, everything was good. Not enough to beat these two (Rosberg and Hamilton) but we did our best."
Romain Grosjean had his last race in Lotus before moving to the newly formed Haas team for next year and, after a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, ended just inside the points in ninth.
Sergio Perez (Force India), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Nico Huelkenberg (Force India), Felipe Massa (Williams) and Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) completed the top 10.
