Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg prepare for one final battle

On the roof of the Mercedes building in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix paddock, Lewis Hamilton sat burnished in golden desert light.

Reclining on a sofa, fashionable flat-peak cap, designer sunglasses, white shorts. As if he did not have a care in the world.

If the tension of one of the most important races of his career was getting to him, Hamilton was hiding it well.

Apart from his Mercedes team shirt, he looked like a film star relaxing on a beach. And he was certainly not acting like a man who by the end of the weekend will be facing one extreme of emotions or another.

Hamilton, like his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, will leave Abu Dhabi either on top of the world or in the pits of despair.

By Sunday evening, one of them will be world champion, riding a wave of confidence into the close season; the other a beaten man who must spend the winter building himself back up to do it all over again next year