adminNico Rosberg put in a commanding performance to win the Austrian Grand Prix, while his team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton made a critical blunder and had to settle for second. Rosberg, who now trails Hamilton by just 10 points in the world championship, took the lead at the start and never looked back. Hamilton chased him down for half of the race but effectively surrendered after a careless error leaving the pits earned him a five-second time penalty.
Despite Hamilton’s mistake, Rosberg seemed to have the measure of his Mercedes foe all-race long. It was his third win of the season and the 11th of his career.
After a spectacular accident involving Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso at the start, it was a fairly processional race following on a weekend when the state of the sport has been under the microscope.
Felipe Massa finished third with Williams’ first podium of the year, keeping Sebastian Vettel at bay in the closing stages.
At the back, McLaren’s woeful season did not show any signs of improvement. Both cars failed to finish, Jenson Button retiring with mechanical trouble after just eight laps. In eight races their cars have failed to finish on 10 occasions.
“Come on guys!”, Rosberg shouted over the radio, his championship challenge well and truly back on course.
Rosberg said: “It’s an awesome feeling of course. I’m very, very happy. The start made the race, and then I managed to defend. And then I tried to push flat out and was happy to see the gap open up to Lewis.”
Hamilton added: “Nico did a fantastic job today. He was quicker during the race. In the second stint it was really just about making the distance.”
Apart from one blistering lap in qualifying, Hamilton had looked second-best all weekend. The start was no different. Rosberg had the better getaway and slithered up the inside. Hamilton tried to retaliate up the hill to turn two but his team-mate defended sternly and sensibly. —Telegraph
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter