It was a dramatic finish that took place at the Austrian Grand Prix. The two
Mercedes entered the last lap fighting for victory with Rosberg in front, but a collision between the two drivers ended up damaging the championship leader's car and handed victory to Lewis Hamilton who thus again cut his teammate's advantage in the world championship standings.
With the damaged car Rosberg eventually fell to fourth place behind Max Verstappen's
Red Bull and Kimi Raikkonen's
Ferrari. The German from Mercedes remains in the championship lead but saw his lead cut from 24 to 11 points.
The race began with Hamilton finally taking advantage from starting from pole position to take the early lead of the race. Running with super soft tires the Brit remained ahead of Raikkonen, with Rosberg starting from sixth place due to a penalty for a gear box change after crashing in the final practice session. The German immediately managed to go up to fifth place and after overtaking Jenson Button and moving up to fourth he made the first tire change dropping to 15th. However, Hamilton chose to stay longer with ultra soft and eventually let Rosberg recover up to a 21-second margin when the British driver came to the pits. A problem changing a tire made Hamilton lose time which handed Vettel the lead as soon as Raikkonen came went to change tires.
After Vettel retired when he was leading due to an explosion in the right rear tire, both Mercedes were leading ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo's Red Bulls and Raikkonen. With the safety car off track Mercedes moved away quickly and returned to discussing the lead in the tire changes. Rosberg got the best of it once again. After both Mercedes changed tires they had to overtake Verstappen who at this time was trying to reach the end of the race with the soft tires.
After overtaking the Red Bull driver the two Mercedes ended up fighting for the win, with the outcome to dictate a collision between them that made Rosberg fall to fourth place, ahead of Ricciardo.
Jenson Button who at some point was driving in fourth scored once again for
McLaren to finish in sixth place, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz Jr. Benefiting from a crash of Sergio Perez in the closing stages of the race, due to mechanical problems, Williams' Valtteri Bottas finished the race in ninth place and Pascal Wehrlein gave the first point of the season to
Manor.
Check the Driver's and Consctructor's World Championship standings here.
Results Austrian Grand Prix
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1h27m38.107s |
2 |
Max Verstappen |
Red Bull |
5.719s |
3 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
6.024s |
4 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
26.710s |
5 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull |
30.981s |
6 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren |
37.706s |
7 |
Romain Grosjean |
Haas |
44.668s |
8 |
Carlos Sainz |
Toro Rosso |
47.400s |
9 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Williams |
1 Lap |
10 |
Pascal Wehrlein |
Manor |
1 Lap |
11 |
Esteban Gutierrez |
Haas |
1 Lap |
12 |
Jolyon Palmer |
Renault |
1 Lap |
13 |
Felipe Nasr |
Sauber |
1 Lap |
14 |
Kevin Magnussen |
Renault |
1 Lap |
15 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Sauber |
1 Lap |
16 |
Rio Haryanto |
Manor |
1 Lap |
17 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India |
Brakes |
18 |
Fernando Alonso |
McLaren |
Power Unit |
19 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India |
Brakes |
20 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams |
Brakes |
- |
Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari |
Tyre |
- |
Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso |
Mechanical |