Mercedes Back in Business at Austrian GP with a 1-2 Finish for Team Rivals Rosberg-Hamilton

On Saturday’s qualifications, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton yielded the Pole position to Felipe Massa after they ran into problems. Massa’s Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished right behind taking the second place on the grid for Sunday’s main event. While Rosberg managed to take the third place, Hamilton was way behind with ninth. Somehow, Hamilton’s wide run had his lap discounted on his first run and then he had a real problem as his rear tyres got locked during braking for Turn Two on his all-important final lap. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was fourth, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth while the sixth spot was taken by McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. It was the first time after six years that Massa won a pole position in a Formula One GP race but the managers at Williams were pleased with the effort.

On Sunday, Massa used his top pole position to race away into the lead as the main event began. The second placed Valtteri Bottas, however, lost his advantage briefly, when Rosberg overtook him at the first corner. But Bottas regained the second place yet again. In the rear, Lewis Hamilton was not bogged down by his ninth place on the grid and raced to the fifth place at Turn Two and fell behind Fernando Alonso. But before the first lap concluded, Hamilton gave another push to his machine and passed Alonso at the eighth turn. Therefore, as they began the second lap, Hamilton was already behind Rosberg. The two pairs of Williams and Mercedes were bunched together as the race progressed. The unfortunate Sebastian Vettel, however lost the power in the first lap and even as the second lap was just starting, he slowly attempted to go to the pits. Afterwards Vettel hung on grimly until the thirty-fifth lap before he was pulled out of the race by his team. For the third time in the unkind 2014 F1 season; Vettel had to retire from the race midway.

Force India’s Sergio Perez wiped out his grid penalty imposed at Montreal and by lap seven, he was on 11th place and showing signs of moving further ahead. Massa took a pit-stop and when he came on lap seventeen he had lost his first position. In between Sergio Perez made smart progress and joined the four race leaders. Perez led the race in lap eighteen with Rosberg just behind him and Hamilton, Bottas and Massa on Rosberg’s trail. Perez held on to his lead until the twenty-fifth lap but far behind the leaders, the Russian Daniil Kvyat skidded into the gravel at Turn Five with a shredded right rear tyre. His whole wheel and suspension hung off and for the third successive time, he couldn’t finish the race. It was such a shame since his team has been trying something new for him. Perez lost his lead in the twenty-seventh lap to Rosberg and since he had not gone to the pits, his tyres were unduly stressed. In lap twenty-ninth, Perez went for the pit-stop and when he came back, he was on the eighth place. He was to rally later to finally finish sixth.Meanwhile, by the fiftieth lap it was clear that the field in the Austrian GP belonged to Mercedes. As the competition entered the last stages, Rosberg was the clear leader, followed by team-mate Hamilton, who was warned about the dangers to his break if tried to add power.

It was Rosberg’s third victory of the season and he extended his championship lead to 29 points. But in the end, it was no cakewalk for the Mercedes team since team Williams challenged them throughout. Williams Valtteri Bottas took the third place; Massa was fourth; Alonso fifth; Perez sixth; Magnussen seventh; Ricciardo eighth; Hulkenberg ninth and Raikonnen was tenth.