Rosberg pips Hamilton to extend championship lead; Maiden podium for Bottas
Spielberg, 22 June 2014: Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg took his third win of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton despite a determind charge by the Briton to second from ninth on the grid.
The German’s win extends his World Drivers’ Championship leade over Hamilton to 29 points. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas claimed his first podium finish with third place ahead of pole winner Felipe Massa. Sahara Force India was once again in double points as Sergio Perez, who disappointed with an controversial last-lap clash in the last race, did a wonderful job finishing 6th after starting 16th while Nico Hulkenberg, lost a place to Daniel Ricciardo during the fag end, but managed to finish ninth.
At the start, pole position man Felipe Massa made a solid getaway to hold the lead. Behind him Bottas lost P2 to Rosberg into Turn One but managed to wrestle back the advantage at the following corner. Behind them Hamilton made a storming start, climbing to fifth from ninth on the grid. He went one better in the final turn of lap one to pass Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and he then settled in behind team-mate Rosberg as the field crossed the line to begin lap two.
Sebastian Vettel though was in trouble. At the start of lap two he slowed dramatically and reported that he had lost power. He pulled over and seemed set to stop but then mysteriously his RB10 seemed to right itself. He was told to ‘go racing’ by race engineer. The champion though was a lap down on the field and a significant recovery looked impossible. The Red Bull driver soldiered on at the back of the field, surviving a collision with Esteban Gutierrez along the way, until he was eventually told to retire his car midway through the race.
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also had a rocky start. Pushed wide in turn two on the first lap he dropped from fifth on the grid to eighth. He was soon after informed that he should not use his overtake button for the whole race and hampered by power problems he was soon down to tenth.
With the opening supersoft tyres being used by the bulk of the field graining badly, the first round of pit stops wasn’t long in coming. The main body of stops was triggered by Jean-Eric Vergne on lap eight, the Toro Rosso swapping the option tyres for prime softs. He was followed a lap later by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and on the following lap by Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo.
Rosberg pitted from third place on lap 11, allowing Hamilton to fly past. Hamilton couldn’t find the pace necessaryon his own in-laps and stop, however, and when he emerged after his own stop on lap 13 he found himself just behind Rosberg.
Leader Massa, meanwhile, was readying himself for his tyre change on lap 14. His stop was far from perfect however and when the Brazilian emerged he found himself behind Rosberg and was then quickly passed by Hamilton.
Bottas’s stop on lap 15 was much quicker, however, and the Finn was able to split the leading Mercedes after taking on soft tyres. The order on lap 16, then, was Sergio Perez, who had started on softs and had yet to pit, followed by Rosberg, Bottas, Hamilton, Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button, who had also started on the soft tyre from 11th on the grid.
On lap 27 Rosberg passed Perez for the lead, the Mexican ceding the position without much of a fight having been told by his pit wall that the race would come back him as his strategy played out later on. Bottas too sneaked through but Hamilton had to wait until the next tour before he could pass the Force India. The delay allowed Rosberg to pop in a fastest lap. Hamilton responded with his own but the gap had by now drifted to 2.4 seconds.
Perez eventually made his first stop on lap 29, tajking on a second set of softs before rejoining in seventh position.
At the front the battle was hotting up again as Bottas and Hamilton closed in on Rosberg, who made a small mistake. The Williams driver got to within a second of the leading Mercedes, with Hamilton in close attendance, but Rosberg soon responded and the gap widened to 1.1s.
Hamilton made his second stop in lap 39, taking on a final set of softs and rejoining in fifth. Rosberg though kept going for another lap and following a three-second stop he retained his advantage over Bottas and Hamilton. When Bottas pitted on lap 41 his relatively tardy 3.4s stop allowed Hamilton to move ahead and claim second.
Massa made his final stop on lap 43, switching to soft tyres in 3.4s. The Brazilian then unfortunately found himself behind Sergio Perez, who was set for a longer stint on his second set of soft tyres.
On the road the leader was Alonso and the Ferrari driver continued until lap 47 when he took on his final set of soft tyres. He emerged in sixth place behind Massa. At the front, Rosberg led by 1.6s from Hamilton, with Bottas a further 5.7s behind.
The question now was whether Perez in P4 and Button in P7 behind Alonso could make any impact once they made their final stop for supersoft tyres?
Unfortunately for Force India, the answer was not much. Perez took on the option tyre on lap 55 and rejoined in eighth position, five seconds behind McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. The Mexican had enough pace in hand to pass Magnussen for sixth place on lap 66 but with a 13-second deficit to Alonso and just laps left sixth was the best Perez could do. Button, meanwhile made his stop on lap 58 but lodged behind tenth-placed Raikkonen in the closing stages the McLaren driver failed to make a significant move.
At the front the battle for the lead finally flared in the final three laps, with Hamilton attempting to get inside DRS range of his team-mate. With a lap left and with Hamilton just 1.1s behind his team-mate both drivers were told they could use all the tools at their disposal. As the pair went through turn three Rosberg lit up his brakes. Hamilton saw an opportunity but he too erred in the corner and the chance was gone. Rosberg hung on to claim his third win of the season. The win means he stretches his championship lead over Hamilton to 29 points.
With Hamilton second, Bottas took his first podium finish with third ahead of Massa and Alonso. Perez held onto sixth ahead of Magnussen but Ricciardo made and exdellent last-lap pass on Hulkenberg to steal eighth. The final points position went to Raikkonen who easily kept Button at bay.
2014 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Result
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 71 1:27:54.976 3 25
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 +1.9 secs 9 18
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 71 +8.1 secs 2 15
4 Felipe Massa Williams 71 +17.3 secs 1 12
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 71 +18.5 secs 4 10
6 Sergio Perez Force India 71 +28.5 secs 15 8
7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 71 +32.0 secs 6 6
8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 71 +43.5 secs 5 4
9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 71 +44.1 secs 10 2
10 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 71 +47.7 secs 8 1
11 Jenson Button McLaren 71 +50.9 secs 11
12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 70 +1 Lap 13
13 Adrian Sutil Sauber 70 +1 Lap 16
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus 70 +1 Lap 22
15 Jules Bianchi Marussia 69 +2 Laps 18
16 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 69 +2 Laps 19
17 Max Chilton Marussia 69 +2 Laps 21
18 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 69 +2 Laps 20
19 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 69 +2 Laps 17
Ret Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 59 +12 Laps 14
Ret 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 34 +37 Laps 12
Ret 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 24 +47 Laps 7
eom/FIA press release
