Nico Rosberg cruises to victory in Austria GP

Despite Hamilton’s pole position, an anxious Rosberg beats him out at the Austrian Grand Prix.

It was all last minute drama for the Mercedes-AMG F1 team during the closing stages of Q3. Lewis Hamilton had found his pole position in jeopardy when he spun out on his flying lap but thanks to a mistake from team mate and closest rival Nico Rosberg on the same lap, Hamilton remained on pole while Rosberg settled for second.

With Rosberg’s polite refusal to be chauffeured back to the pits had brought on a number of witty remarks and not-so-friendly jokes, the entire F1 crowd expected Hamilton to run away with the race. But Rosberg proved them all wrong. Hamilton’s start was unexpectedly slower than his team mate, the Brit enjoyed a little bit of wheel to wheel action going into turn one with his team mate before allowing Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to get a little peep at second place as the field entered the long straight.

The crowd was on the edge of their seats when Hamilton shook off Vettel to chase after his pole sitting team mate. More wheel to wheel action ensued as the two silver arrows went through the next few corners fighting for position but unfortunately the battled had to end when Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso crashed spectacularly into the barriers and brought out the safety car.

The end of the safety car period saw Rosberg running away with the lead, extending a gap so far that Hamilton and the team of engineers on his side of the garage were hard pressed to find a strategy to pass Rosberg even during the pitstops. Hamilton managed to close the gap for a few laps but lost the progress when Rosberg started responding to his threat.

All was not well when Rosberg started skidding during his in lap, Rosberg lost a total of seven-tenths of a second right before he pitted allowing Hamilton to close in once again. Rosberg also had a little bit of pit-lane drama when he almost crossed the pit entry line above the pit-lane speed limit.

Hamilton took the lead briefly and entered for his pitstop a lap later his team mate handing the lead to Sebastian Vettel. As Hamilton rejoined the race in P3, he crossed the pit-lane white line subsequently earning himself a five-second stop go penalty from the race stewards.

Five more laps of the Austrian GP, Rosberg could be heard telling his race engineer about the vibrations he was feeling at the front of his car. While the engineers reported that nothing of concern popping up on their screens, an anxious Rosberg told his team to keep all eyes on the monitors just in case.

Nico Rosberg crossed the finish line just two-seconds ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton bringing back another one-two for his team, winning the Austrian Grand Prix the second year in a row. With this win in the bag, Nico Rosberg slashes Hamilton’s lead to just ten-points ahead. It’s only mid-season folks, with only just ten points separating our championship leaders Hamilton has got to work hard to defend his title against his new and improved team mate Rosberg. Everything is going to boil down to the double points at the season finale but we’re in for some fun action!

Jerrica Leong