Rosberg leads from turn 1 to victory at Austria

Rosberg leads from turn 1 to victory at Austrian F1 Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg stated from second to overtake polesitter Lewis Hamilton at turn 1 and never looked back to win the Austrian F1 Grand Prix at Spielberg.

Except for one lap during pitstops, Nico Rosberg lead and won the race. Lewis Hamilton later said that he had a clutch problem which resulted in his slow start. He said "I let the clutch out and it just underperformed. Its something that I have been having since Barcelona and  before that I was having better starts."

It was the third victory of the season for Nico Rosberg after the previous victory at Monaco, where Mercedes decided to keep Nico Rosberg on the track during safety car period and brought back Lewis Hamilton for a pitstop to give victory to Rosberg. Now Nico Rosberg is only 10 points behind Lewis Hamilton and the championship doesn't look secure for Hamilton.

Felipe Massa of Williams finished third behind the two Mercedes cars.

Sebastian Vettel had a problem during the pitstop with his right rear wheel taking time to change and finished fourth. So this was the first podium finish for Felipe Massa this year. Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished fifth and was followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India in sixth.

Pastor Maldonado of Lotus was seventh and was followed by Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso in eighth. It was a big fight between these two drivers and Maldonado was able to overtake Verstappen just two laps before the finish and was just ahead by hardly a second at the finish line.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 9th and was followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull in 10th. It was great for Ricciardo as he had to serve grid and stop go penalty.

It was an eminently forgettable race for Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. He qualified at 18th and then had a first lap massive crash with Fernando Alonso of McLaren, his former teammate.

Felipe Nasr of Toro Rosso was 11th and was followed by sister team Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat at 12th.

Marcus Ericsson jump started ie started before the starters gun and hence was given a drive through penalty and he had car problems as well. He finished 13th ahead of Roberto Merhi of Manor Marussia Racing at 14th.

Austrian Grand Prix 2015 race results

Retirements in Austrian Grand Prix

Romain Grosjean
Carlos Sainz
Jenson Button
Will Stevens
Kimi Raikkonen
Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton snatches pole in Austrian F1 Grand Prix

Hamilton snatches Pole in Austrian F1 Grand Prix

In an eventful qualifying in Austrian F1 Grand Prix qualifying, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes snatched the Pole position from his teammate Nico Rosberg with a time of 1m 08.455 seconds.

Nico Rosberg had topped the qualifying in Q1 and Q2 and also during the first run in Q3. However, Lewis Hamilton drove fast to overtake the time of Nico Rosberg by 200th of a second. In the last lap Lewis Hamilton while being in the provisional pole again made a mistake in the second sector where as his teammate had done well in the second sector. However, soon Nico Rosberg drove into the gravel trap. Nico's earlier time of 1m 08.655 was good for P2.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari scored P3 with a time of 1m 08.810 seconds.

Felipe Massa of Williams will lineup alongside Vettel in the second row with a time of 1m 09.192

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will start in 5th position as he was timed 1m 09.278seconds. Valtteri Bottas of Williams will start alongside him in P6 with a time of 1m 09.319 seconds.

Max Verstappen with time of 1m 09.612 seconds was P7 and Daniil Kvyat of the sister Red Bull car was behind him in P8 with a time of 1m 09.694 seconds.

Felipe Nasr of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 09.713 came in P9. Romain Grosjean didn't do a qualifying run in the Q3 and will start 10th in tomorrows race.


It was a big surprise in the Austrian F1 Grand Prix qualifying as Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was expected to be among the frontrunners for pole position but he could only score 18th position in the qualifying.

Positions 11th to 15th:
Pastor Maldonado of Lotus, Marcus Ericsson of Sauber, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, Fernando Alonso of McLaren were the drivers who came in positions 11th to 15th respectively.

Lewis Hamilton was 13th in the Q1 leg of qualifying whereas his teammate Nico Rosberg was on top. Such was the situation at the Austrian F1 Grand Prix as drivers battled mixed conditions. The track was drying up and the times were continually improving all the time. So it was no surprise that some of the well known names fared badly in the Q1 in qualifying. However Kimi Raikkonen was genuinely surprised as he shouted into the radio "How the **** is that possible?"

After the 18 minutes long Q1 leg of the qualifying, the five Serzio Perez, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens failed to qualify to the Q2. They scored the positions P16 to P20 respectively.

One should remember that Fernando Alonso has been penalised 20 places and Daniel Ricciardo 10 places respectively, so the final grid places will be different.

Daniel Ricciardo was penalised 10 places but since he qualified in 14th position, despited going to the back of the grid he will be charged with a 5 seconds stop-go penalty during the first pit stop.

Fernando Alonso has been penalised 20 grid places. So from 15th he will go to the back of the grid and then get stop go penalty.

Final Qualifying Positions in Austrian F1 Grand Prix