Formula 1 2015 - Rosberg dominates in action packed Austria

Rosberg took the lead at the start, defended from his team-mate superbly on the first lap

"To get a day where it's one of the easier wins and not having pressure from Lewis behind was great to see," said Nico Rosberg, after he had just won what must be one of the most impressive races of his career to date. He qualified 2nd, after both Mercedes driver's unusually spun off on their final qualifying laps on Saturday, and at the start of the race he took the lead from team-mate Lewis Hamilton and never looked back.

Rosberg and Hamilton went wheel to wheel on lap one, the German fending of Hamilton

Hamilton probably got quite lucky in qualifying. Rosberg had been faster all weekend, on qualifying and race runs, but Hamilton pulled out a lap good enough pole in qualifying, at a crucial time as it turned out. When he spun, Rosberg had just set a purple sector time in sector 2, but when Rosberg went off at the final turn, Hamilton emerged as the pole winner. Rosberg though didn't let this deter him, taking the lead at turn 1 at the start and defending brilliantly on lap one as Hamilton attacked, before the safety car appeared.

Raikkonen and Alonso came together on the opening lap

The safety car appeared thanks to a crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen had started way down the order after failing to exit Q1, and as he exited turn 2 on the opening lap, he lost control of the Ferrari and collected Alonso's McLaren, both slamming against the wall, the McLaren mounting the front of Raikkonen's Ferrari, making for a very dramatic and scary crash. "I don’t know exactly what happened before the crash, I had some wheelspin in an unusual place". said Kimi after the crash, clearly puzzled by what happened.

Alonso's McLaren mounted the front of Raikkonen's Ferrari

It was particulary bad new's for McLaren. Alonso was running with the new parts on his car, and with the race basically being a test session for them thanks to various engine penalties, they now had no chance of gathering data on the car, Jenson Button was still using the old specification bodywork and longer nose on his car. Fernando was still upbeat though despite the crash, saying "I’m optimistic because I know our fortunes will change very soon".

Rosberg judged the restart to perfection

At the restart Rosberg launched away from Hamilton, already aiming to get out off DRS range, as Hamilton in turn started to edge away from Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari. Felipe Massa gave chase in his Williams whilst his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Force India's Nico Hulkenburg engaged in a very entertaining tussle, the Finn having just passed Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso, a relatively easy task considering the Toro Rosso has a Renault engine.

The Mercedes pitcrew were at their best as usual for their man

Back at the front, Rosberg had eaked out a lead of nearly seven seconds, although Hamilton managed to whittle this down to around three come the pitstops. Rosberg locked up massively going into the pitlane but a quick pitstop and two fast outlaps meant he retained the lead when Hamilton pitted two laps later. Rosberg pulled away once again, and his task got that little bit easier when Hamilton was given a 5 second time penalty for going over the white line at pit exit. Hamilton would now have to pass Rosberg and pull out a gap of over five seconds to win, and with his lack of pace compared to his team-mate, Rosberg now had it in the bag. 

Bottas and Hulkenbug had a great scrap during the race

As the battle for lead settled, Bottas and Hulkenburg resumed their duel for 5th place. Hulkenburg got out ahead of Bottas after they made their visit to the pits, with his Force India team giving him a fantastic 2.7 second stop, allowing their man to hold off the Williams again. Bottas did eventually find his way past the Force India, as the two of them dealt with car's that had yet to pit, but Hulkenburg's drive from 5th to 6th was very impressive, a great way to say goodbye to there launch spec car as Force India prepared to welcome the B-spec VJM08

Bottas had brake issue's, compromising his race slightly

It wasn't plain sailing however for Valtteri, as after he revealed after the race. "Midway through the race I had a brake issue which I had to manage a bit". The brake issue's were later put down to being behind Hulkenburg for so long during the first stint, however he remained upbeat after the race "We have closed the gap to the team in front in the Constructor’s Championship which is a good feeling. Well done to Felipe on a great result to get on the podium".

Vettel was all set for 3rd until his pitstop

Ahead of Hulkenburg and Bottas, Vettel and Massa were fighting it out for the final place on the podium. The Ferrari had been ahead for the whole of the first sting but Massa had kept him honest throughout. Things took a turn for the worse for Vettel, as when he made his pitstop a wheelnut became cross threaded, costing him time and position, as he was passed by Massa and dropped to 4th.

Massa took his first podium of 2015

Despite having the slightly quicker car, Vettel could not find a way past Massa, the power of the Mercedes engine and the slippery nature of the Williams FW37, as well as good defensive driving from Felipe, kept the Brazilian ahead, taking Williams second consecutive podium of the season, and the first for Massa in 2015. After a quiet start to the year, Williams are now finding their feet and crucially, able to take the fight for Ferrari. 

A delighted Felipe on the podium

After the race, Massa said "We made the most of the slower Ferrari pitstop and took all the opportunities that came to us to achieve my first podium of the year". A great result for Massa. With Bottas finishing in 5th, it was a good haul of points for the British team, and with Raikkonen's earlier retirement, it was ultimately a disappointing day for Ferrari.

Hulkenburg drove a fine race, one week on after winning Le Mans

With Hulkenburg's 6th place and Sergio Perez's 9th place after starting way down the order, it was an ultimately successful day for the Force India team. The win at Le Mans really seemed to have boosted the Hulk's confidence and he couldn't stop smiling all weekend, and his smile was still there after the Grand Prix on Sunday. “I’m very satisfied with sixth place today. Going into the race we always knew it would be difficult to keep the Williams of Bottas behind me, so bringing the car home in sixth was probably the maximum we could achieve" he said after his great race.  The B-spec car will be introduced at Silverstone, where Force India really expect their season to take off.

Max Verstappen impressed yet again

Max Verstappen had a great weekend in the Toro Rosso. He and team-mate Carlos Sainz were very fast in the wet in Q1, and Max managed to qualify 7th and finish the race in 8th place after an exciting dice with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado. His team-mate though wasn't so lucky. Sainz qualified 13th and retired in the race with a loss of power, a rather disappointing weekend then for Sainz whilst his young Dutch team-mate shone.

Kvyat and Red Bull had a nightmare race

Not for the first time this year, Toro Rosso actually outscored the main Red Bull team. Both Red Bull Car's of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat had to take ten place grid penalties for new engines, and with the cars already lacking pace thanks to the Renault power unit, it was an uphill struggle from that moment onwards. Kvayt managed to qualify 8th before taking his penalty, but his race was ruined after a tangle with Perez at the start, causing front wing damage, and damage to the rest of the car, compromising his race after an early pitstop to change the front wing and he never recovered.

Ricciardo salvaged one point for Red Bull

Ricciardo however had a much more successful race...if you call scoring one point for 10th place a success but that was what Red Bull were fighting for in Austria,their home race, although after the race, he said  "To finish tenth is a good result from where we started today". Well at least he was happy! Daniel used a different strategy of starting on the soft tyre's then switching to the super soft's effectively, passing Felipe Nasr's Sauber late in the race, before chasing down, but not quite able to catch, Sergio Perez. A horrific weekend for Red Bull at their home track, even worse than Ricciardo's 8th place last year. Who knows when Red Bull's season will finally turn around.

Sauber's weekend didn't really got to plan

Talking of Sauber, their weekend was even worse than Red Bull's. Marcus Ericsson had a difficult qualifying and a race from hell, jumping the start and ending up two laps down after his car decided to shut down on him twice in the race. Felipe Nasr meanwhile was running in the points for much of the race, but brake issues meant he lost potions as the race went on, ultimately dropping him outside the points after Ricciardo got past him, which was a shame because he was set for 8th place at one point. Upgrades will be coming to the C34 soon but the driver's will have to wait a few more races before they get their.

Maldonado put in another solid drive, and more points on the board for him and Lotus

Despite his reputation, Pastor Maldonado has driven very well this year, he just hasn't had the luck. He finally got some luck in Canada to score his first points of the year and picked up where he left of in Austria, taking a solid 7th place for Lotus, having qualified just outside of the top ten in 11th place and showing great pace through the race to beat team-mate Romain Grosjean. 

Grosjean was in the mix, until his gearbox decided it had just had enough

Grosjean though did sadly retire thanks to gearbox issues. Maldonado had a very good scrap with Verstappen late in the race, which he ultimately won, despite nearly losing the car at turn 1 and on the start finish straight! "It’s great to get another seventh position and the points that come with it. It was a big moment fighting with Max. The super soft tyres were very hot so losing their grip and you lose a lot of downforce close to the car ahead, but everything was under control!" said Pastor after an exciting race for him. It did look under control...just!

Alonso never even got to the end of lap one

No ones weekend though was as bad as McLaren's. Both cars had 25 place grid penalties, yes, 25. That's despite there only being 20 cars in Formula 1 right now! Both drivers would have to serve different penalties early in the race but Alonso of course never got to serve his, tangling with Raikkonen early on and destroying a lot of the new bodywork.

Button didn't last much longer than his team-mate

Jenson Button did at least manage to reach the safety car restart and take one of his penalties, but that was as good as it got for Jenson. After taking his stop/go penalty, he then had to retired the car due to various issues. "Nothing was broken on my car, but something was wrong – and the switch-changes didn’t make any difference. So the team took the decision to retire the car" said Jenson after the race. A miserable weekend once again for McLaren-Honda. Surely it'll come good soon, right?

Merhi and Manor were fighting with the Bull's early on, believe it or not!

Finally, it was another mixed bag for Manor Marussia. They qualified in 16th and 17th after all the various penalties for the Red Bull's and McLaren's, but Will Stevens retired just after the safety car appeared for the Alonso and Raikkonen crash, thanks to an oil leak. Roberto Merhi though finished 14th, his and the team's highest finish of the year so far, even if he was last! He even managed to mix it with the Red Bull's early on!

Rosberg took a fine 11th career victory

The action though was all very much behind Nico Rosberg, who took his 11th career victory in fine style and closed the gap in the championship back to 10 points, in an exciting race that Formula 1 fans needed. Not a classic, but a good entertaining race. This was a great weekend for Nico, and with his confidence sky high, he really is excited for Silverstone. "Now I’m really looking forward to Silverstone, where I have good memories with the pole last year and the win in 2013". No doubt beating Hamilton on the Briton's home turf would be extra satisfying, and if Hamilton finishes 3rd and Rosberg wins, Nico will take the lead in the championship. Can he take his fourth win of the year? Don't bet against it. This championship is not over yet. Until Silverstone folks. Ciao!

A delighted Rosberg celebrates his win on the podium

All images copyright of their respective Formula 1 team's.