Nico Rosberg says he was ‘absolutely gutted’ after colliding with Mercedes team-mate on the final lap of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, which dropped him from first to fourth at the flag.
Having kept his title rival at bay for 15 laps, the F1 points leader lost a bit of momentum out of turn one, which gave Hamilton a good run on him up to the second corner.
The Briton then launched an attack on the outside, with Rosberg defending the inside. The German, who was reportedly coping with brake-by-wire issues, ran into Hamilton but ended up damaging his Mercedes W07.
While Rosberg managed to limp across the line, he still saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen beat him to the podium.
“Absolutely gutted for sure it’s unbelievable, but that’s sports sometimes,” Rosberg said of the incident afterwards. “I was sure to win that race and lost it on the last lap. That was pretty intense.
“We were battling, I was struggling a little bit with my brakes, they got a bit hot in the end and my tyres were degrading so that gave Lewis a chance.
“Nevertheless, I was confident that I can defend and bring it home. I had the inside position, the strong position and then I went deep and Lewis turned in.”
Up to that point, it had been a very strong effort from Rosberg, moving up from sixth on the grid to within striking distance of his sixth race win of the season.
When asked whether he felt Mercedes’ strategy had helped his recovery over Hamilton, the 31-year-old did not sound to be in the mood to go into further details.
“To be honest I don’t know about that, I was out front and felt great and was going to win the race.”
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