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Hamilton collides with Rosberg to win Austria GP

Lara Seychell
Formula 1

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By Lara Seychell

  • Lewis Hamilton wins after dramatic last lap incident in Austria
  • The Brit closes gap to 11 points in drivers’ championship
  • Jenson Button finishes in fantastic sixth place

SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – Lewis Hamilton secured his third 2016 win after coming together with Nico Rosberg in the final lap of the Austrian Grand Prix.

The two Mercedes drivers collided as they were battling for the win. Hamilton tried to overtake Rosberg from the outside of Turn 2 when the German braked late and the drivers touched. Hamilton then ran wide, managed to enter the track again, and overtook Rosberg who was going slow after suffering severe damage to his car during the collision. This meant that both Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen passed him for second and third places respectively.

As a result, Rosberg finished in fourth and lost valuable points in the championship battle. After the race, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff stated that Rosberg had a brake-by-wire failure going into Turn 1 of the last lap.

(Via Viralsme, YouTube)

He also added that he was not impressed with the last lap incident that could have ended with both his drivers getting a DNF from a possible 1-2.

As reported on The Telegraph, Wolff said: “Brainless! Nico had a brake failure … seeing both cars colliding is very upsetting. We’re looking like a bunch of idiots and it’s disrespectful to 1500 people who work their nuts off to prepare the cars. This needs to end.”

Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull finished in fifth while Jenson Button for McLaren drove a fantastic race to finish in sixth position.

On lap 26, Sebastian Vettel span off after suffering a huge puncture on the main straight and the safety car was called out.

As reported on The Telegraph, Vettel said: “Rear right exploded – nothing I can do, engine off. That’s it, sorry guys”

Vettel was still with the tyres he started the race on, which meant that Ferrari’s strategy didn’t go as planned.

Following today’s race, Rosberg is now leading the championship by just 11 points ahead of Hamilton as they take the challenge to the British Grand Prix in Silverstone on July 10th.

Here are the final standings:

  1. Lewis Hamilton
  2. Max Verstappen
  3. Kimi Raikkonen
  4. Nico Rosberg
  5. Daniel Ricciardo
  6. Jenson Button
  7. Romain Grosjean
  8. Carlos Sainz
  9. Valtteri Bottas
  10. Pascal Wehrlein
  11. Esteban Gutierrez
  12. Jolyon Palmer
  13. Felipe Nasr
  14. Kevin Magnussen
  15. Marcus Ericsson
  16. Rio Haryanto
  • DNF Sergio Perez
  • DNF Fernando Alonso
  • DNF Nico Hulkenberg
  • DNF Felipe Massa
  • DNF Sebastian Vettel
  • DNF Daniil Kvyat