Hamilton wins Austria GP after last lap drama

Lewis Hamilton recovered from a collision with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to claim victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.

The result allows Hamilton to close up in the Drivers’ Championship, slashing Rosberg’s lead from 24 points to 11 ahead of the British GP next weekend. “I left a lot of room on the inside for him and he locked up and went into me”.

“I don’t know why [they’re booing]”, Hamilton said. I think he had a problem with his brakes potentially, though.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen were able to overtake Rosberg to claim second and third respectively.

However, a 10-second penalty did little to affect the outcome of the race, with Rosberg having finished 16 seconds ahead of fifth-place Daniel Ricciardo.

He had led from the off while Rosberg, who had started sixth after collecting a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change following a practice crash, reeled off a series of impressively quick laps.

“It was a huge team effort today, with both sides of the garage working together to get my damaged vehicle ready for qualifying”, said Rosberg.

Hamilton told his engineer over team radio: “I was on the outside – it wasn’t me who crashed.”What was said afterwards?”

The team mates have clashed three times in the last five races – in Spain, Canada and the Red Bull Ring – as their championship duel heats up.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was unsurprisingly fuming, calling the incident “Brainless”.

Winner Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes celebrates on the podium after the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria, 03 July 2016.

Wolff told German television that the brakes on Rosberg’s vehicle “were at the end”.

Rosberg protested his innocence, but the majority of those in the paddock, as well as the race stewards, deemed him to be the guilty party.

“I was just very surprised that Lewis turned in and that caused the collision”.

“I wanted to discuss it [with Hamilton] but he didn’t feel the need to”, Rosberg said. It’s really hard to get over something like that because I had the win in the bag and I was convinced I’d win it. Then to lose it like that on the last lap, especially in those circumstances, was a pretty tough one.

“I was on racing line, he was on my blind side, I assumed he was there”.

“I don’t have a great picture of what went on”.

Unlike on previous occasions this season, pole-sitter Hamilton made no mistake as he led comfortably into turn one.

The safety vehicle was triggered by Vettel’s right rear tyre exploding on the pit straight on lap 27 – within the predicted life of the tyre at the start of the race.

A rain shower sent the cars into the pits late in the second session and the biggest action came right at the end of the third session, after the track dried and the cars switched to softer, faster tires.

The duel between Hamilton and Rosberg overshadowed another fine performance from Verstappen. Massa and Alonso retired their cars with less than 10 laps left in the race, meanwhile, Button was eyeing for a strong P6 finish.

“Him turning in just completely caught me by surprise”.

For Verstappen, it’s the second podium for the young driver that has only been on Red Bull for a handful of races.