Rosberg eases to Austrian GP victory

Nico Rosberg took a comfortable victory in the Austrian Grand Prix to cut Lewis Hamilton's championship lead to ten points.

While Hamilton started from pole, it was Rosberg who got the better start and led in to Turn 1 before a scary crash for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen brought out the safety car. From then on, Rosberg eased away at the front and he soon had a comfortable cushion thanks to an error from his team-mate.

Having waited two laps longer to pit, Hamilton was always going to lose time compared to Rosberg but he carelessly drifted across the pit line exit line and was hit with a five second time penalty which all but ended his hopes.

Sebastian Vettel had been a distant third but was then hampered by a slow pit stop, dropping him behind Felipe Massa to fourth. Vettel slowly reeled the Williams in but didn't have the pace to mount a serious attack in the closing laps, getting within DRS range but never attempting a move as Massa held on for Williams' second consecutive podium.

Fourth for Vettel will be a disappointment after strong Friday practice pace, but once again Mercedes showed it had more time in hand when it came to a race distance and was never under threat from either Ferrari or Williams.

Valtteri Bottas finished a distant fifth, some 53s behind race winner Rosberg after losing out to both Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen at the start of the race. Having eventually dispatched both, Bottas then dropped behind Hulkenberg again during the pit stops and once he regained the position he was too far adrift of the leading four.

Hulkenberg came home an impressive sixth at the final race before Force India introduces its B-spec car, capping a successful week following his Le Mans victory seven days ago.

Pastor Maldonado pulled a late move on Max Verstappen to take seventh place - very nearly losing control of his Lotus in a straight line as he did so - while Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten.

The race was ultimately won for Rosberg in to Turn 1, but it ended just a corner later for Alonso and Raikkonen in a nasty accident which both were fortunate to walk away from.

Exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap of the race, Raikkonen lost control of the rear of his Ferrari and swerved left towards the barrier on the outside of the track. With little run-off, Raikkonen collected Alonso at the same time and the two cars hit the barrier at high speed.

The Ferrari wedged underneath the McLaren, with Raikkonen taking his hands off the wheel as Alonso's car sat on top of the front of his SF15-T as the two slid down the grass alongside the track.

Alonso's car was also balanced on top of the crash barrier, leaving the Spaniard as a complete passenger as he waited for the two cars to stop before he was able to climb out. Alonso checked Raikkonen was OK before both left the scene of the incident, with Raikkonen saying afterwards he simply lost control of his car.

It was a miserable opening few laps of the race for McLaren, with Jenson Button retiring soon after with a technical issue.

Click here for the gallery of the Formula Una girls at the Austrian Grand Prix

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