3 things you need to know about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

The Formula One season concludes on Yas Island on Sunday with the eighth Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Here are three things you need to know about the race:

The Track

(Courtesy: Formula One)

Yas Marina combines elements not seen on any other F1 track, with more traditional straightaways and tricky turns. The circuit runs anti-clockwise and in the final hours of daylight, offering some picturesque twilight driving. Cars also pass through a tunnel on the way to the pit lane, and underneath a hotel moments before that.

Drivers will take Turns 2 and 3 at high speeds, allowing for a quick start to the race. Turns 12, 13, and 14 are arguably the hardest to navigate - a sequence that calls to mind Monaco's winding street circuit.

In all, spectators should see an exciting 55 laps that will crown the season's winner.

Rosberg looks to win 1st championship

The math is simple for Mercedes leader Nico Rosberg: finish in third place, and a first Drivers' Championship is his.

Antagonistic teammate Lewis Hamilton ensured over the past few weeks that the title race would go down to the wire. But the toughest of tasks awaits him in Abu Dhabi, where the Englishman must win and hope for Rosberg - who has a 12-point lead going into the weekend - to experience some kind of trouble.

The Germans only dropped off the podium five times this season - and in Spain, it was a crash between the two Mercedes men that caused both to retire.

If anything, Hamilton is the one who's suffered car problems this year. (An engine failure forced him to withdraw from October's Malaysian Grand Prix.) But the three-time world champion has no quit.

"It's not been a perfect season, and I'm faced with pretty impossible odds no matter what I do this weekend," Hamilton said. "But I can't and won't give up. You never know what might happen - however unlikely it may seem."

After all, Hamilton already turned around a 43-point deficit this year to take a temporary lead in the standings.

Battle for 4th place still open

Though not as glamorous as the first-place tussle, the race for fourth overall is just as intriguing. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and intrepid Red Bull teenager Max Verstappen will jostle for the position - as they have for the past two races.

Verstappen angered Vettel with some of his passing moves and defensive tactics in Mexico and Brazil, with the German going on an expletive-laden tirade following the chequered flag at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

A fourth-place finish would offer Vettel a small consolation to end a frustrating season in which he only reached the podium six times.