Spielberg (Austria),: Nico Rosberg celebrated his 30th birthday with a third win in four races on Sunday when he beat Mercedes teammate and season leader Lewis Hamilton to triumph in an incident-filled Austrian Grand Prix. The German driver, who left his twenties behind on Saturday, repeated his 2014 success when he came home a comfortable 3.8 seconds clear of the defending world champion and reduced his lead from 17 points to 10.
After eight of this year’s 19 races, Briton Hamilton, who picked up a five seconds penalty in the race, has 169 and Rosberg, who won last year’s Austrian event, 159. It was Rosberg’s third win of the season and the 11th of his career. Brazilian Felipe Massa came third, 17 seconds adrift of the two Mercedes men, six-tenths of a second ahead of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, Finn Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams and German Nico Hulkenberg, who one week after winning in the Le Mans 24 Hours race, finished sixth for Force India.
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado was seventh for Lotus ahead of Dutch teenager Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso, Mexican Sergio Perez in the second Force India and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who picked up a point for Red Bull, after starting down the grid. The race began with drama as Rosberg sped into a first corner lead and almost immediately a spectacular collision between two-time champion Fernando Alonso and 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen caused the race to be halted with the introduction of a safety car.
Alonso’s car landed on top of Raikkonen’s car. Both drivers were unhurt and walked away, shaken but not injured. It was another hugely disappointing day for the struggling McLaren-Honda team. On top of Alonso’s first lap crash, Briton Jenson Button had to make an early retirement in the other car with engine problems. In dry and mild conditions in the Styrian Alps, Rosberg made a perfect start as the lights went out, drawing alongside pole-sitter Hamilton to take the lead at the first corner.
The world champion attempted to re-gain the lead at the next two turns, but Rosberg defended adroitly while, behind them, a serious collision involving Raikkonen and Alonso caused the race to be stopped and run behind the safety car until the debris was cleared. Alonso’s McLaren Honda appeared to crash into Raikkonen’s Ferrari from the rear and rose to land on top of the Finn’s car as they skewed into the barriers. Both men were unhurt and walked clear from the debris. Button, who witnessed the accident, said it was “horrific.”
