F1 2016: Hamilton wins in Austria as Rosberg throws it away

Lewis Hamilton has won the Austrian Grand Prix with Max Verstapen in second and Kimi Raikkonen in third.

A race that intensified with each consecutive lap, it was the final one that delivered the most amount of drama. Lewis Hamilton started the race from pole but after a few pit stops, the defending champion found himself behind his team-mate, Nico Rosberg.

In the final stages, Mercedes called in Hamilton for a set of soft tyres. Rosberg was asked to come in for his final remaining super soft tyres on the next lap. But Hamilton went too wide at turn 2 on his out lap, and came out behind Rosberg with 15 laps still to go.

Hamilton closed the gap very nicely to Rosberg and applied pressure on his German team-mate. On the very final lap, Hamilton got a good exit out of turn 1, and made his move from the outside on Rosberg at turn 2. Rosberg tried to close the door, and run Hamilton wide. But Rosberg collided with Hamilton and broke his front wing to limp to the finish line, as Hamilton managed to keep his car intact to take the victory. Mercedes claimed that Rosberg suffered a brake-by-wire system failure which may have been a contributor to the incident.

As Rosberg was limping to the flag, he was overtaken by Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen and dropped down to fourth place. Rosberg is currently under investigation by the stewards for carrying on with a damaged car, and causing a collision.

Ferrari also managed to make errors in strategies during the race. As Hamilton pitted for the first time from the lead on lap 21, Ferrari brought Raikkonen in too early which resulted in him dropping down behind both Red Bulls of Verstappen and Riccardo. But Raikkonen did manage to finish on the podium.

On lap 27, Sebastian Vettel having not pitted at all on the super soft compound, had a major explosion of his right rear tyre and crashed on the main straight. It could be a result of Ferrari leaving Vettel out for too long as in addition to the 27 laps in the race, its also the same tyres Vettel used to qualify in. which had brought out the safety car to clear the track.

Rosberg’s Championship lead has now narrowed down. But if no action is taken by the stewards, Rosberg’s gap to Hamilton is now only 11 points. Vettel and Raikkonen both now have 96 points each, with Ricciardo behind them with 88 points.

2016 F1 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX (3/07/2016)
Red Bull Ring– 5.941KM, 9 TURNS (71 laps)