Hamilton wins an eventful Austrian GP after the Mercedes pair collide on the final lap. The crash prevented Mercedes claiming another 1-2 finish, as Rosberg dropped to 4th with severe damage on his car. The incident promoted Verstappen to 2nd and Raikkonen to 3rd, the only finisher for Ferrari after Vettel suffered a tyre explosion.
Hamilton led the race at the start, Hulkenberg making a poor start from second on the grid to allow Button to move up into second. Meanwhile, Rosberg quickly made his way through the pack from 6th position. He was running third, behind Raikkonen by lap 10. Pitting early, Rosberg made the switch to the soft tyres before Hamilton, who waited until lap 21 to make the change.
Delayed by a slow stop, Hamilton emerged from the pits behind Rosberg. Raikkonen pitted a lap later from the lead, allowing Vettel to move into the lead. Then, on lap 27, his right rear tyre exploded, sending him into the wall. Pirelli had advised the teams prior to the race that the supersoft compound would last 30 laps, so this incident was unexpected.
The crash brought out a safety car and at this stage it appeared that Rosberg was on a two-stop and Hamilton a one-stop, able to make it to the end on the current set of softs. However, Mercedes soon realised this wouldn’t work, pitting Hamilton on lap 56 for an additional set of soft tyres. Pitting a lap later, Rosberg was put onto the supersoft compound.
By the final laps of the race, Hamilton was within a second of his teammate and determined to take victory. Then, a mistake at turn one on the final lap for Rosberg allowed Hamilton to make a move. He went on the outside around turn 2, but Rosberg ran wide and pushed Hamilton of the track. In doing so the two cars collided, damaging the front wing on Rosberg’s car. Hamilton rejoined the track alongside Rosberg, making it past as his teammate slowed due to the damage.
Rosberg limped home in fourth, having lost out on a potential victory, second place went to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Raikkonen came through in 3rd. The victory for Hamilton means that the gap in the title is closed to just 11 points.
Behind Rosberg, Ricciardo finished in 5th ahead of Button – who was very happy with 6th for McLaren after the strong qualifying on Saturday. Hulkenberg failed to finish, with brake problems, as Grosjean took 7th for Haas. Sainz took a comfortable 8th, ahead of Bottas. A fantastic race for Wehrlein, following the impressive qualifying result of 12th, saw him score the first points of the season for Manor in 10th.
After the race, the stewards deemed Rosberg responsible for the incident and gave him a ten-second penalty. However, this didn’t change the outcome of the race and he remains fourth. He was also given a reprimand for failing to stop with a damaged car.