Rosberg: ‘Great start’ defined race

Nico Rosberg pinpoints his ‘great start’ and subsequent defence on Mercedes team-mate Hamilton as the defining moment to build his second consecutive Austrian Grand Prix win.

Lining up second behind the championship leader, Rosberg enjoyed a better getaway off the line and beat Hamilton into the first corner. The German then managed to hold off the Briton over the next couple of corners before the Safety Car came out following the scary shunt involving Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Rosberg had to briefly defend again from Hamilton when racing resumed at Spielberg, but then opened a comfortable as he eased to his third victory of the season.

“It’s an awesome feeling of course to win here again,” I’m very happy, he said. “The start made the race. I had a great start, then I managed to defend in the first couple of corners and really tried to push flat out.

“I was really happy with the car, happy to see the gap opening up to Lewis. So it really worked out perfectly for me today.

Rosberg’s only scare surfaced in the closing stages of the Grand Prix when he reported a problem on his right front tyre.

“It was just vibrations picking up on the right front, so I just told my team to keep an eye on it.

“But it was fine in the end, it sort of stabilised, so it was not a problem. It just came from the tyre wear. It just feels a bit uncomfortable when that happens, but we were all fine.”

After claiming his 11^th career win at Spielberg, Rosberg now only trails Hamilton by 10 points despite a quiet start to his 2015 campaign. Most crucially, last year’s runner-up thinks he’s finally cracked the code to beat his team-mate on Sundays.

“This year I’ve found what I needed to find last year in terms of doing just a little bit better in the race and that’s really working out well for me this year.”