Rosberg leads penalised Hamilton home in Austria

2015 Austrian Grand Prix summary

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Nico Rosberg took his third grand prix victory of 2015 in Austria, comfortably beating team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg overtook Hamilton as soon as the lights went out at the start of the race, and withstood mid-race pressure from his team mate as the pair made their single pit stops.

The pit stop proved Hamilton’s undoing, as he crossed the line marking the pit exit. The stewards handed him a five-second penalty, making his goal of beating Rosberg even more difficult.

Hamilton did not need to worry about losing his grip on second place as a slow pit stop took Sebastian Vettel out of contention. That promoted Felipe Massa, giving the Williams driver his first podium finish of the season.

Valtteri Bottas had to pass Nico Hulkenberg twice as he led the Force India driver home for fifth as he too had a slow pit stop.

Seventh placed changes hands in dramatic fashion in the dying moments of the race, as Pastor Maldonado swerved around Max Verstappen, fighting hard to keep his Lotus under control. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top ten.

There were 14 cars still running at the end, but Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso weren’t among them as they collided heavily on the first lap. The McLaren ended up perched on top of the Ferrari, but both drivers were unhurt.

2015 Austrian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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40 comments on “Rosberg leads penalised Hamilton home in Austria”

  1. I thought Maldonado was going to end up in the wall. Great reactions there!

    1. Twice in fact, with Verstappen, and on the kerb! Good recovery from him and 2 good races in a row for Pastor.

  2. So I was wondering about Hamilton his penalty. Basically what he did was cross a white line with two wheels, you know those that also appear at the edge of the track. So why is it not OK to cross these with two wheels but hardly worth the investigation when drivers go wide at every single corner exit zone, crossing the white line with two wheels. Surely the white lines mean the same over the entire track…?

    Anyway not that it would have mattered as Hamilton was never going to pass Rosberg after the SC.

    1. The ones out of the pit lane are unsafe to cross because (depending on the circuit e.g Monaco) there could be cars coming around at a much higher speed than the car coming from the pits.

      1. @earmitage Yes, I have been watching the sport for longer than today. But they should police it the same way.

        1. So a five-second penalty every time someone runs a bit wide out of a corner?

          1. Exactly. Wut

        2. pastaman (@)
          21st June 2015, 21:09

          Clearly not much longer

    2. @xtwl

      I imagine you’re just be rhetorical. Clearly crossing over the lines coming out of the pit onto the racing line is serious? And all drivers know that.

      As for the other lines, yeah, some corners drivers are given slack, and other corners very specifically they are not. The drivers all know which corners they can go wide on and which ones will be penalized for, especially in qualifying.

      Lewis made a mistake. The problem with the title of this post is it makes it sound Rosberg only won because of the penalty. Since the error was unforced on Hamilton’s part the title of this post could just easily be “Rosberg wins as Hamilton cracks under pressure”. But that’s not really accurate either is it?

      Rosberg was faster, did a better job and deserves the win. For whatever reason, this is track Lewis just doesn’t do well on.

    3. @xtwl Because there is no line of cars going mach faster on the outside of the track. Silly comparison.

    4. So why is it not OK to cross these with two wheels but hardly worth the investigation when drivers go wide at every single corner exit zone

      If you need an explanation for this, you need to think harder.
      And what did SC have to do with Hamilton’s chances? He was already as far behind Rosberg as he was after SC.

    5. A nice question to open up discussion there @xwtl.

      I somewhat agree with those arguing that a line separating the pit-exit from the fast lane of traffic on the straight is a bit different then the line separating the track from the runoff aeras here. Clearly this is a more important line then and needs more stringent penalties if not heeded.

      On the other hand, ALL white lines should be respected (afterall they ARE the track limits), and also, if one can safely ignore most lines, that lowers the threshold to go over the rest of the lines too.

      Why I think we should not be going in a direction where drivers get regularly punished with penalties if they go over the track limits is that it would turn the sport into a penalty fest even more than it is already. We saw how unpopular it made stewarding when last year people lost their fastest laps over it, even though I think that is exactly how it should be handled at least in qualifying.
      Preferably the track surface itself (or rather the layout and material used in the runoff+kerbing) would keep the drivers from doing this. That means steeper kerb-stones, more grass strips adn even gravel trap-strips used, possibly the some of the Paul Ricard Tungsten strips (but they are really expensive), I would add foam boards/track liners at some places to make barriers for getting back onto the track, so that a driver going off has to slow down, make some extra turns and can only join the track a bit later, automatically punishing them, while at the same time not adding too much risk to car and driver.

      1. sorry should be @xtwl

      2. Nicely reasoned response there, +1

      1. @red-andy @xtwl Exactly – I think I posted that very same video in response to a question about it on Twitter.

        Incidentally, while F1’s pit lane exit rules came about because of that incident, they’d had a similar rule in IndyCar at least ten years earlier.

      2. @red-andy I’m not at all arguing why the rule exists. I’m just wondering why we are treating identical lines in different ways. Can’t really remember the last time someone got penalized for cutting the pit exit as we all know why you keep to the inside yet drivers seem to have less of an issue with it when on the track itself.

  3. Class drive by Nico!

  4. Wonder why Mercedes deciding to pit Hamilton 2 laps later instead of the usual 1 lap, very strange indeed…

    1. Hamilton asked why on the radio and they told him:

      https://twitter.com/f1fanaticlive/status/612605496105807873

      1. I get the vibe that Mercedes do all they can to try and help Nico attack Lewis yet when it’s the other way around its all about Lewis protecting 2nd place.

        1. Before we resort to conspiracy theories based on suspicion and innuendo, can we at least give the facts an airing? See here:

          Why Mercedes left Hamilton out for an extra lap

  5. Its an uncharacteristic Lewis Hamilton drive today.well done Nico.Deserved victory.good drives frm massa,vettel and bottas too.

  6. @KeithCollantine Little bit of dramatic headline to this article. For a moment it feels like Rosberg won because of a penalty to Lewis. The penalty was very much inconsequential to the race result.

    Happy to see Kimi and Fernando okay after the incident.

    Felt a little sad seeing Button retiring so early !!!!

    Otherwise Beautiful scenery in Austria’a A1 ring. Must be one of the naturally prettiest tracks around the world.

    1. Didn’t read like that to me. ‘Rosberg wins after penalized Hamilton comes second’ would. But that wasn’t the headline.

      Good race from Rosberg, first decent weekend from him for a long time. At least there may still be a title battle.

    2. @tmax

      it feels like Rosberg won because of a penalty to Lewis

      It doesn’t say that, that’s just what you’re reading into it.

      1. @keithcollantine as i mentioned in my post

        For a moment it feels like Rosberg won because of a penalty to Lewis. The penalty was very much inconsequential to the race result.

        I was just saying that the incident is so trivial and inconsequential that it did not deserve an headline spot. Again if I had not watched the race before reading your article if I just read the headline it would give a thought that both the incidents aka Rosberg’s win & Lewis’s penalty are connected.

        Agreed That little bit of innocent sensationalism is part of journalism and improves readership. Given that it was much of a dull race something is better than nothing. Also Given Lewis’s massive popularity, his name in the headline gives more attention than others.

        IMHO the the Kimi-Alonso Pile up was the second most notable event of the race after the Roseberg win. Probably that would have deserved a better place in the headline compared to Lewis’s penalty.

        Rosberg Wins after Kimi’s Lucky escape in First lap pileup with Alonso!!!!

        1. @tmax

          I agree with you, a very misleading title. Putting both in the title implies a connection between the two. That’s just how the English language works, and people that deny that don’t understand English. (sorry @keithcollantine, it’s poorly worded and not the fault of the reader for reading something into it).

          More silly is that “penalized Hamilton” is a non-story, the real story for Hamilton is that he can’t unlock the secrets of the track.

          1. @uan It’s not ‘poorly worded’, it’s precisely worded. I wrote a title which tells you what happened to the two leading championship contenders and the two leading drivers in the classification. It is wholly true – to call it “very misleading” is ridiculous hyperbole.

            You’re reacting as if the title said ‘Rosberg wins because Hamilton got a penalty’, which of course it does not.

          2. @keithcollantine

            I have massive respect of the quality and quantity of content provided, not to mention how quickly you make that content available after a race.

            I disagree on the title. Even more so for the “it’s wholly true”. Yes. Technically it is, but it’s not wholly relevant or even partially telling of the story.

            Some whole true phrasing could include:

            Rosberg leads better paid Hamilton …
            Rosberg leads shorter Hamilton …
            Rosberg leads “other driver” …
            Rosberg leads frustrated Hamilton…

            Etc. These are all wholly true.

            Here’s probably the best headline, which actually tells the story of Hamilton’s race (not that he was penalized which was meaningless to the outcome).

            Rosberg leads poor starting Hamilton home….

            or “Hamilton’s botched start leads to Rosberg win”

            Or even “Flawless Rosberg leads Hamilton home…”

            Why even have a qualifier for Lewis?

            The start was the alpha and omega of Hamilton’s race. He even admitted it.

            As it stands, the current title implies, by the positioning of the words, that Rosberg’s lead was the result of, or made possible by, the penalty Hamilton got. (Especially after Monaco, where Rosberg inherited a victory not earned. Today, Rosberg totally earned the victory, he was the better driver all weekend except for one lap in Q3).

    3. @keithcollantine, it would help your case if you would put your hand up everyone now and then and admit some kind of fault. Coming out defensive every time someone “politely” raises a potential error doesn’t help.

      There is no way anyone who can put two and two together is not going to think the title implies Rosberg won because Hamilton was penalized. Even in your other article explaining why Hamilton was left out an extra lap, you state that the penalty had no impact on whether or not Hamilton would challenge Rosberg for victory.

      So why juxtapose those two together in a title and then get defensive when someone brings up an issue with what the title implies? You write hundreds of titles, no one is expecting you to be perfect every time. As a journalist/blogger/writer…etc…you’re going to make mistakes. However, if you start going down the path of “I did nothing wrong” every time, then that’s a problem.

      1. But why should @keithcollantine “politely raise” his hand up every time someone raises a “potential error” if he does not agree?? And what the heck is a “potential error” anyway??

        Also, why does Keith need any help with his “case”? What case?? Am i the only one thinking YOU are the one with a problem here, simply because Keith dares to disagree with your opinion over a piece that HE wrote on HIS blog??

        1. @kbdavies, calm down. It’s not that serious. And yes, you are the only one if you can’t see what this is about.

          BTW, you’re suppose to tag the person you’re responding to. Why are you tagging Keith when you’re actually responding to me lol! It’s cool you’re trying to show Keith you have his back, but staying objective is the most important. No one is trying to vilify or put anyone down.

          1. Loooool! I certainly do not have Keith’s “back”. I have disagreed with him many many times on this same forum. And i am extremely calm.

            I simply tagged him because my comment involved me. There was no reason to tag you as i was responding to you comment, and knew you would see it. See, life is not as complicated as we make it.

          2. *involved him

      2. @sudd When I agree I have made an error, I do. I did on the live blog during today’s race when I got something wrong. But you can’t expect me to pretend I’m wrong when I know I’m not.

        1. @keithcollantine, that’s fine. But the title is misleading even if it’s factually correct. I believe that’s the point @tmax was trying to make.

  7. Nico just dominated, Lewis was dodgy and erratic all weekend, qualy’s super lap was an exception.

    Good for the champ!

  8. Ferrari should fire that tire changer.

  9. Good race by Nico, was strong all weekend. Great start which is really all he needed to do. Lewis never tried to challenge once he knew about the penalty. Disappointed once that had happened as it IMO ruined the race

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