Lewis Hamilton won an action-filled Austrian Grand Prix here Sunday after colliding with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg on the last lap, in a dramatic finish to the ninth Formula One race of the season.
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Hamilton escaped punishment and retained his victory as the stewards found Rosberg the guilty party, handing the German a 10 second penalty, although it did not affect his final place.
Rosberg was in fact fortunate the collision was on the final lap and not any sooner with the championship leader, who is now only 11 points ahead of Hamilton, only being passed by Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen before the chequered flag. As Hamilton turned in, Rosberg continued forward and the two made contact, resulting in Rosberg dropping to fourth around the remainder of the lap with a broken front wing.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton insists his team must allow himself and Nico Rosberg to continue racing despite their recent collision.
The Briton ended up the victor while Rosberg dropped to fourth and saw his lead slashed to 11 points with 12 rounds remaining. It was disappointment for Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who crashed out of the race on Lap 27, after his the tyre on his vehicle delaminated. I left tons of room for him to make the corner and I got to the white line and I began to turn and boom, big hit.
“I think he had a problem with his brakes potentially”.
Don’t miss the F1 Report: Austrian GP review on Sky Sports F1 at 8.30pm on Wednesday as Stoffel Vandoorne and Jaime Alguersuari join Marc Priestley in the studio.
“Team orders are on the table now, we have to consider this”, said Wolff, after Sunday’s stunning contest in which Hamilton overcame unfavourable strategy decisions and Rosberg’s belligerence to win.
“We were battling and I was struggling a little bit with my brakes”. I don’t go out to get caught in a collision.
Fifth in the competition was Australian Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull and Jenson Button sixth for McLaren.
He added: “I don’t want to attribute blame to each of them”.
Rosberg said he now has to pick himself up swiftly with the British Grand Prix looming next weekend.
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And it was Rosberg – hampered by brake problems in the closing stages of the race – who was duly investigated by race stewards, both for the collision and failing to stop with a damaged auto. He led early but dropped back to fourth after a messy pit stop that included a slow change of his rear tire.
