Categories: FeatureFeatures

Austrian Grand Prix review

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Nico Rosberg cut the gap to Lewis Hamilton to just ten points with a dominant victory in Austria despite not starting on pole position. F1i looks back at how the race weekend unfolded and opens itself up to future ridicule by checking just how accurate its podium prediction was…

The race in 100 words

Hamilton got a poor start as Rosberg beat his team-mate to Turn 1, and the battle only continued for one more corner before Kimi Raikkonen lost control of his car and took out Fernando Alonso in a scary accident which saw the McLaren end on top of the Ferrari. Rosberg eased away after the safety car period while Vettel couldn’t match the Mercedes’ before a slow pit stop dropped him behind Felipe Massa’s Williams, with Vettel failing to regain third. Nico Hulkenberg impressed with P6, while Jenson Button retired the second McLaren on another tough weekend for the team.

Driver of the weekend

Nico Rosberg appeared to have the edge over Lewis Hamilton throughout the weekend, but qualifying looked set to be his achilles heel once again when he locked up and ran wide at the final corner having been close to snatching pole position. However, Rosberg perfected his start and took a lead at Turn 1 which he would never relinquish, easing away from Hamilton in his most dominant display. The result is the first time Rosberg has taken victory when Hamilton has started on pole and not suffered a reliability issue.

Move of the race

Take a bow Pastor Maldonado. In a race which was relatively lacking in overtaking manoeuvres, Maldonado pulled a spectacular move which resulted in him taking seventh place. Chasing Max Verstappen on worn tyres late in the race, all of the ingredients were in place for a feisty fight and Maldonado chose Turn 1 to attack having had the benefit of DRS. With Verstappen moving across to defend the inside line, Maldonado jinked to the outside and almost lost control, showing brilliant car control to recover the car and maintain momentum, taking the position on exit as Verstappen ran wide.

Prediction accuracy

Podium: 1. Nico Rosberg, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Felipe Massa

F1i’s pre-race prediction: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Sebastian Vettel, 3. Valtteri Bottas

Weekend recap

Friday

Vettel tops FP2 by 0.011s in Austria

Gallery

Saturday

Hamilton takes pole despite Mercedes errors

Gallery

Sunday

Rosberg eases to Austrian GP victory

Gallery

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.