Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton in Austria to cut the gap between the two to ten points. The German, starting the race in second place, overtook his team-mate on the first lap and never looked like losing from there on.
Rosberg was off to a flying start, fighting with Hamilton on the main straights, with Rosberg placing his car extremely well. Elsewhere, Daniil Kvyat hit Sergio Perez’ Force India, forcing the Mexican to pit. Marcus Ericsson almost made a jump-start, but managed to stop himself before releasing the clutch, leading to a bad start. He was later investigated for a jump-start and received a drive through penalty.
The most exciting moment of the early stages of the race was a huge crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen appeared to lose the rear and collected Alonso who went straight over the top of him. Both drivers became passengers and came to a halt on the grass. Both drivers were unscathed, despite Alonso’s car ending up on top of Raikkonen’s much like the crash between Romain Grosjean and Alonso in Belgium in 2012. Unsurprisingly, both drivers retired from the race.
A safety car was called, and on the second lap without overtaking Will Stevens came off the track. Three cars were out after the first two laps. The top five remained the same while Roberto Merhi moved up to 13th. On lap six, the safety car was called back in and Rosberg wasted no time in extending his lead at the front.
Carlos Sainz had a little coming together with Romain Grosjean, but both lived to fight another day whilst Rosberg was setting the fastest lap. Meanwhile, Jenson Button served his 10-second stop-go penalty before his Honda engine began to sound awful before he was forced to retire. Yet another double retirement for the Woking squad, McLaren-Honda. Meanwhile, the rest of the track action began to settle down with just 16 runners left on lap 11.
Grosjean went off in his battle with Perez whilst Verstappen struggled with brake temperatures while fighting with Hulkenburg for fifth. Hamilton finally started to eat back into Rosberg’s two-second lead with Vettel a further five seconds back.
Bottas went down the inside of Verstappen but tried to fight back along the main straight. However, Mercedes power winded out and beat Verstappen, despite him having DRS. Bottas therefore moved up to sixth.
Further back in the battle for tenth, Perez locked up as Grosjean, with DRS tried to have a go in the final sector, but they continued to line a stern as the fight continued while Maldonado loomed in the background. The Frenchman continued to do battle, locking up his wheels.
Marcus Ericsson stopped on the pit straight, before finding drive again and continuing on his way.
Grosjean is the first to pit for tyres on lap 24, switching to the harder prime tyres in a 2.6 second stop. He came out in 14th. Nasr soon followed suit.
Bottas and Hulkenburg wheel-to-wheel as the Finnish driver locks up and goes around the outside of turn three but moved past the Le Mans winner into fifth before pitting. Coming out of the pits, Bottas almost crashed with Hulkenberg, and replays showed Bottas almost colliding with Verstappen in the pit lane.
Toro Rosso’s Verstappen eyed up tenth placed Kvyat who stopped very early on after a first lap incident. Verstappen sped past Kvyat and moved into the points. Elsewhere, Sainz received a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Rosberg still led by 3.2 seconds on lap 30, with both Mercedes well clear of Vettel’s third placed Ferrari. Rosberg went into the pits on lap 33 after a scruffy entrance to the pit lane. Hamilton did the same on lap 36, allowing Rosberg to regain the lead.
The Brit went under investigation for crossing the pit lane line as Sainz brought his Toro Rosso into the pits to retire, soon followed by Grosjean with a box full of neutrals. For this Hamilton received a five second time penalty, which didn’t seem too detrimental. On lap 40, Daniel Ricciardo, running in ninth, was the only driver not to have pitted.
The battle for the final podium position began to heat up in the latter stages, as Vettel, behind after a poor pit stop, got ever closer to Massa. The Williams appeared to have the straight line speed advantage, but was struggling with traction. Lap 68 and Rosberg told his team on the radio of his worry about the left tyre, but the team assured him that there was no need to panic.
Vettel saw half a chance to overtake Massa but the Brazilian kept the door firmly shut. Replays show Maldonado and Verstappen almost coming together, but the Lotus driver backed out of it and lost seven tenths of a second in doing so.
As Rosberg came through to lap them, Maldonado and Verstappen were locked in a battle for seventh and eighth. Verstappen told his team that his tyres were completely gone, but he continued to fight. In the end, Maldonado won the battle, but Verstappen’s eighth finish was most impressive nonetheless.
Vettel came tantalisingly close to beating Massa to the podium, but could not quite get round him. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg swung round the final corner to take his third win of the season, and Hamilton finished safely in second.
Nico Rosberg Wins the Austrian Grand Prix
Provisional Results:
- Nico Rosberg
- Lewis Hamilton
- Felipe Massa
- Sebastian Vettel
- Valtteri Bottas
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Pastor Maldonado
- Max Verstappen
- Sergio Perez
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Felipe Nasr
- Daniil Kvyat
- Marcus Ericsson
- Roberto Mehri
Retirements:
- Romain Grosjean
- Carlos Sainz Jr
- Jenson Button
- Will Stevens
- Kimi Raikonnen
- Fernando Alonso
