Nico Rosberg increased his lead at the top of the drivers championship with a victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, edging out Lewis Hamilton in yet another Mercedes 1-2 with Valterri Bottas completing the podium in Spielberg.
Although Hamilton failed to post a time in qualifying yesterday starting from ninth on the grid, he managed to climb seven places to finish behind his Mercedes teammate. The 2008 world champion managed to power through the likes of Dani Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen to get himself in fourth place after just two laps whilst Williams’ pair Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas led the early stages after a fantastic qualifying.
Rosberg’s persistence throughout the whole race meant that he was rewarded with first place giving him his third victory of the season, opening up his lead at the top to 29 points – the highest it has been this season.
Despite leading the early phase, and then remaining strong through the middle stint at the Red Bull Circuit, Williams had to settle for third and fourth places with Bottas and Massa, but gives them more points as a team.
Fernando Alonso finished fifth, but was just a second adrift of former team-mate Massa after a fine drive for Ferrari, with Sergio Perez sixth for Force India from 15th on the grid.
World Champion Sebastian Vettel had to retire after problems with the car from the first lap after slowing down when his RB10 started crawling round the lap when it lost drive, only to suddenly power up again. By then, Vettel’s chances of a finishing in the points at the home of Red Bull was in jeopardy after he continued one lap behind the rest. After a later collision with Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber prompted a nose change, Red Bull chose to retire avoiding any more problems that his car could have.
His Red Bull teammate, Daniel Ricciardo – who finished on top in Montreal last time out finished in eighth position ahead of Nico Hulkenburg in another good day for Force India and Kimi Raikkonen in tenth.
The day belonged to Rosberg and Mercedes, but there’s no question that Williams will be happy at the way things happened this weekend by getting their first podium finish this season with Bottas.
Next up is Silverstone for the British Grand Prix – the 50th race at the track in Formula One and no doubt that Lewis Hamilton will want to catch up with Rosberg in the championship, not to mention win on home soil.
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