F1 2015 Austrian Grand Prix result: Hamilton beaten by Rosberg

The 30-year-old Mercedes AMG Petronas driver from Hertfordshire crossed the line second in Austria behind Silver Arrows colleague Nico Robserg.

Pole-sitter Hamilton lost the lead in the run to the first corner after a poor start and was later hit with a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line after his first stop for tyres.

Rosberg capitalised to take the chequered flag for back-to-back wins in Austria, with Hamilton’s second place ensuring another Mercedes one-two.

Afterwards, Hamilton said: “Nico Rosberg was quicker than me in the race. He deserved it.”

He added: “Nico did a fantastic job. I had a really bad start. After that I was pushing as hard as I could.”

Felipe Massa took the third and final step on the podium for Williams, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari not far behind in fourth place.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was fifth in the provisional results, with Nico Hulkenberg sixth for Force India and Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado seventh.

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen was eighth, with Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo completing the top 10 for Force India and Red Bull respectively.

Lining up on pole position, Hamilton was overtaken on the run to the first corner by fast-starting Silver Arrows colleague Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg then managed to fend off Hamilton’s repeated attempts to regain the lead on the opening lap.

The Mercedes duel was put on hold when the Safety Car was deployed on the first lap following a collision involving Fernando Alonso’s McLaren-Honda and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Fortunately, both Alonso and Raikkonen were able to clamber out of their cars unscathed following the big shunt.

The Safety Car came in at the end of lap six. Rosberg streaked away at the restart, quickly pulling out of the DRS zone with a 1.5 second advantage over Hamilton.

Not long after the restart McLaren suffered a further blow when Jenson Button was forced to retire, resulting in another double DNF for the team.

With 16 laps completed, Rosberg’s lead over Hamilton was 1.7s, with Vettel another 5.4s back in P3.

Hamilton dropped further back after a really scrappy lap, and by lap 27 Rosberg had pulled four seconds clear of his Mercedes colleague.

The reigning world champion chipped away at the deficit over the following laps, closing to within a second before Rosberg pitted on lap 34.

A quick stop of 2.7s saw Rosberg back out on Primes and he soon set a fastest lap on fresh rubber.

Hamilton’s first stop was four-tenths slower than Rosberg, and he crossed the white line at the pit exit, resulting in a five-second time penalty to be added at the end of the race.

Meanwhile, Vettel’s hopes of a podium were hampered by a slow stop for tyres, relegating him to fourth behind Massa, although he gave Williams some nervous moments in the final laps as he closed right in on the Brazilian.

Entering the final 25 laps, Rosberg held a seven-second advantage over Hamilton, plus the time penalty, with Felipe Massa 16 seconds behind Lewis.

The gap between the Mercedes drivers had stabilised at around six seconds with 15 lap remaining, with the real battle going on behind the Silver Arrows pair between Massa and Vettel for the final podium.

Hamilton closed to within five seconds of Rosberg in the closing laps as Nico struggled with vibrations with his Mercedes, but the German took the chequered flag.

After his third win of the 2015 season, and the 11th of his Formula One career to date, Rosberg said: “Wow, what a day! It feels so great to win again in Austria. It’s such a special track – very tricky and with a fantastic crowd.

“After my mistake yesterday in qualifying I was determined to push really hard to win this race.

“I had a good start and went into Turn One in the lead, which was very important as I knew from past races this year that it’s very difficult to overtake the same car on track.

“After I passed Lewis I was able to control the lead quite comfortably.”

Rosberg added: “Towards the end I felt some vibrations on the right front tyre but I was able to manage it to the flag. Big thanks to the team for a great car and a perfect race.”

Hamilton completed a Silver Arrows 1-2 for the second consecutive season in Spielberg and now leads Rosberg by just 10 points in the Driver’s Championship.

Afterwards Hamilton said: “It was a pretty straightforward race. I didn’t have the best start. I had a problem with the revs in that, when I came off the throttle, the revs stayed up.

“So, when I dropped the clutch, I had too much wheel spin and lost ground. That’s something we’ll look at after the race.

“Then, I was keeping up with Nico in the first stint – but in the second phase he just had better pace. At the end it was just about bringing it home – but Nico deserved the win so congratulations to him.”

After today’s maximum points, the AMG Petronas team head Ferrari by 136 in the Constructor’s standings.

Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said: “I’m very happy with the result today, especially at my and Niki’s home circuit here in Spielberg.

“It’s even more special because we have three Mercedes engines in the top three for the second year in a row; it couldn’t be better.

“Nico drove a brilliant and dominant race today – he got a great start, had the upper hand on pace and made no mistakes at all.

“Both boys were right on the limit, as you could see when Nico came into the pit lane sideways for his pit stop!”

Wolff added: “As for Lewis, his race boiled down to the start and the pit stop; he lost out off the line, which we will need to analyse, then looked to have a snap oversteer as he left the pit lane and put two wheels over the line.

“From there, he just brought the car home and managed the gap to Felipe behind.

“Like in 2014, we are seeing the advantage swing from driver to driver across the races, and I’m sure they’ll be battling all the way to the end of the season.”

Paddy Lowe, executive director, felt it was a “fantastic result” to achieve another 1-2.

He said: “The start was not ideal for Lewis, so he lost the benefit of pole position. There was no particular issue – Nico just managed to get away slightly better and there was actually not much in it away from the line.

“After the very early safety car, it then became clear that Nico had a slight pace advantage over Lewis – but more importantly that our car was showing a bigger advantage than we had anticipated over Ferrari.

“It therefore became more of a battle between our two drivers up until the first round of stops. Lewis, of course, was then handed a time penalty for a very small error.

“The number of errors that either he or Nico make is very small indeed and I think this highlighted that rarity rather than presenting any cause for concern.

“From there, it became clear to Lewis that the race win was out of reach barring any dramas, which gave us the luxury of managing the cars home for a great 1-2 finish.”

While Mercedes celebrated another double podium, it was a difficult and disappointing weekend for everybody at McLaren-Honda.

Starting from 19th (Alonso) and 20th (Button), both drivers were out after eight laps.

Alonso retired on lap one after Kimi Raikkonen lost control of his Ferrari ahead of him, at the exit of Turn Two.

The collision resulted in both cars crashing spectacularly, immediately prompting a Safety Car to clear the debris.

Explaining what happened, Alonso said: “I got a good start, and made up a lot of places into Turn One and Turn Two.

“Kimi ahead of me had started on the Prime tyre, and he exited Turn Two with a lot of wheelspin – I went to overtake him and he lost the car to the left, and that’s exactly where I was – so we both went into the wall.

“Luckily, we’re both fine. It was a strange incident, because he lost the car in fifth gear, so it must have been very low grip.”

Button boxed under the Safety Car to fit Prime tyres, with the aim of running an effective ‘one-stopper’ to the finish.

He then took a 10-second stop-go – as part of yesterday’s grid penalty – but was then ordered by his engineers to retire the car as a precaution after suffering an intake system sensor failure.

Button said: “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 – we’d fitted a brand new engine this weekend, and we didn’t want to unnecessarily damage it, so we decided to stop.”

Looking ahead to next month’s British Grand Prix, Button added: “Silverstone will be another step forward. Hopefully, we’ll have got rid of our issues so I can have a stronger race in front of my home crowd.

“And, after that, Hungary is a circuit that should suit us, so we can get a good result there.”

After another DNF, he added: “In times like these, you’ve just got to stay positive. Everybody back at the factory listens to our post-race interviews, and both Fernando and I want to keep everyone motivated.

“We’re in a good place, because we know what this package can achieve, so hopefully everyone will continue to stay strong.”

Those comments were echoed by Alonso, who said: “We just need teamwork to keep us going: our expectations are clearly higher than what we’re currently achieving, but we’re moving in the right direction.

“I’m optimistic because I know our fortunes will change very soon.”

McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier added: “Murphy’s Law famously states ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’; as far as McLaren-Honda is concerned, this afternoon proved it 100 per cent correct.

“Having been relegated to the very back of the grid owing to a series of penalties, our drivers started today’s grand prix in 19th and 20th positions.

“Before the race was even a lap old, however, Fernando was out, following contact with Kimi’s Ferrari. It was a pretty big shunt, so the most important point is that no-one was badly hurt.

“A few laps later, Jenson’s race had come to an end also, as a result of an intake system sensor failure.

“These are difficult days for all at McLaren-Honda, in Woking as well as in Sakura, but we won’t let our heads drop.”