Hamilton takes last lap victory in clash with Rosberg

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Lewis Hamilton has won the Austrian Grand Prix in a last lap overtake on his team mate Nico Rosberg. The two came together, causing damage that forced Rosberg to slowly and take 4th at the finish. Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen both passed Rosberg to complete the podium.

As the lights went out for a perfectly normal start on a dry track, Lewis Hamilton easily emerged ahead, followed by Button and Raikkonen. Nico Hulkenberg had a very difficult getaway but still managed to slot into 4th, despite seeing Ricciardo pass him initially before taking back the position at turn 2.

2 laps ater, Rosberg moved up into 5th, passing Ricciardo, with Verstappen soon also passing Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel followed in 8th, ahead of Bottas and Sainz.

Of the top 10 runners, Ferrari and Red Bull crucially completed their Q2 fastest laps on super soft, so they started the race on these tyres. All others starting in the top 10 used the ultra soft tyres, which should theoretically wear out faster.

On lap 7, Rosberg passed Verstappen for 4th place while Ricciardo also moved down a spot as Vettel got the better of him through the penultimate corner.

Button meanwhile help up nicely at the front, until Raikkonen got past on lap 7 as well. Rosberg soon found his way past too with Verstappen following suit on lap 9.

Lap 9 also marked the first pitstops, with Hulkenberg and Alonso the first men to change, followed by Button, Bottas and Perez one lap later.

By lap 15, the durability of the super softs compared to the ultras started to show, with Raikkonen consistently faster again than Hamilton. The latter was clearly suffering of bad graining on the ultra softs while his team made already pitted on lap 11 to change to softs. Hamilton eventually pitted on lap 22, changing to soft tyres, even though some drops were falling on the back straight. He rejoined the track a few seconds behind Rosberg, while new leader Raikkonen pitted another lap later and rejoined the race just behind Verstappen, taking 4th place.

On lap 27, the safety car was brought on track as Vettel spun on the main straight, following an explosion of his right rear tyre. Ferrari was clearly pushing the limits of the life of the super soft tyres, with Vettel's tyres showing lots of graining and wear for numerous laps before the incident. Vettel came to a halt just ahead of turn 1, on the track, but was unable to get the car going again, and hence retired from the race.

The safety car triggered lots of pitstops again. Neither Mercedes or Red Bull stopped though, making those the first to queue up behind the SC, along with Pascal Wehrlein, who was queueing in between the leading Mercedes's until he was allowed to overtake due to being lapped. The SC also passed through the pitlane twice, with all cars following, but seemingly some forgot that the maximum pitlane speed needed to be respected. This subsequently resulted in 5-second penalties for Hulkenberg and Grosjean.

Positions behind the safety car were Rosbeg, Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Bottas, Nasr, Button, Grosjean, Magnussen, Massa, Perez and Alonso.

Nothing much changes in the laps following the departure of the safety car on lap 32. Most action, or attempts to, originated from the cars following Felipe Nasr. The latter had not stopped for new tyres during the safety car period, so soon started to bunch up a pack of cars behind him, including Massa, the McLarens and the Force India's. Button was the first to get past on lap 39.

At the front, the Mercedes continued to put in fastest laps, even though that changed nothing to their relative positions. The gap remained around 2 seconds until Rosberg missed turn 2, returning to the track just ahead of Hamilton. The latter though was unable to make use of it, and soon saw Rosberg increase the gap to 2 seconds again.

Just before that, Hamilton was told to be careful with the kerbs, as the team measured vibrations to a point that could cause suspension failure.

On lap 54, Hamilton pitted for another set of softs, with Rosberg changing to super softs one lap later. A small mistake from Hamilton on his outlap, along with a faster stop for Rosberg kept the German ahead of his team mate. Max Verstappen meanwhile inherited the lead.

Ricciardo pitted a few laps later to ultra softs as well, while Verstappen opted to stay out, even though he was quickly passed by both Mercedes cars.

Towards the end of the race, Hamilton then started to capitalise on the soft tyres, with Rosberg having used the best of his super softs. The former came ever closer, and went for the outside in the approach to turn 2. Braking side by side, Rosberg left no space for Hamilton. As the latter turned in, he touched the front wing of Rosberg, breaking it off eventually, and forcing Rosberg to take it slowly to the finish, dropping down to 4th as Verstappen and Raikkonen made their way past.