Lewis Hamilton was the defending race winner and had already secured his third Drivers' Championship earlier in the season at the United States Grand Prix.

In Saturday's qualifying, Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) secured his sixth consecutive pole position and went on to win the race ahead of teammate Hamilton.

Red Bull teammates Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo were just ten points apart in the battle for seventh in the championship.

At Lotus, Jolyon Palmer replaced Romain Grosjean, but had to sit out most of the session due to a water leak, managing just nine laps.

Third fastest was Sergio Pérez for Force India, although he was unable to run in the last twenty minutes of the session due to brake issues.

The Red Bull drivers Kvyat and Ricciardo were fourth and sixth respectively, while Fernando Alonso came within one second of Rosberg's time in ninth.

On the slower soft tyres, one lap was impeded by traffic, another was disturbed by Hamilton spinning after hitting the kerb at turn five.

[11] At the beginning of the first part of qualifying (Q1), Mercedes sent both their drivers out on the faster super-soft compound, while Ferrari stayed on the slower soft tyres.

[18] Fernando Alonso in the other McLaren did not make the cut, after a puncture on his last lap left him without a chance at a faster time, while Marcus Ericsson was held up by a technical issue, qualifying 18th.

[17] Both Manor Marussia drivers were eliminated at the bottom of the standings, with Will Stevens 1.137 seconds ahead of his teammate Roberto Merhi.

In his last qualifying session with Lotus, Romain Grosjean experienced technical difficulties that forced him to come back into the pits.

A much better time in the third sector of the track allowed Rosberg to take his sixth consecutive pole position almost four-tenths ahead of his teammate.

Further back, Fernando Alonso made contact with Felipe Nasr and then crashed into Pastor Maldonado, who was forced to retire.

While Hülkenberg was able to stay ahead of Massa, Sainz's stop was unfortunate and he lost time due to a problem with the tyre change.

The leaders pitted for new tyres around laps ten and eleven, with the order now being Rosberg ahead of Vettel, who was yet to stop, Hamilton, and Räikkönen.

On lap 19, Carlos Sainz Jr. allowed teammate Max Verstappen to pass him, while Alonso came in for what was his third pit stop of the race, leaving him in last position.

Lap 53 saw Romain Grosjean move into the final point scoring position of tenth by passing Carlos Sainz Jr. into turn eight.

[24][25] In the podium interviews, conducted by former Formula One driver David Coulthard, Nico Rosberg expressed excitement over how the end of the season had worked out for him, describing the race in the United States as his "low point".

During the press conference, third-placed Kimi Räikkönen said: "It’s never nice to finish third but I’ll take it after previous races", pointing to a season that had been marred with small mistakes and misfortunes for him.