Rosberg held off Hamilton at the Red Bull Ring after a first-corner lead, while Raikkonen and Alonso crashed out of the leading group on the opening lap.
The 2015 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Red Bull Ring on 21 June 2015, the eighth round of the season. Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton second and Felipe Massa third for Williams.
Nico Rosberg won the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on 21 June, beating his teammate Lewis Hamilton by over three seconds. Felipe Massa took the last podium place, and the race is remembered for a first-lap crash between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso that left both drivers unhurt.
What was the championship picture going into Spielberg?
Hamilton had won the previous race in Canada and entered Austria with a 17-point lead over Rosberg. Mercedes led Ferrari by more than 100 points, specifically 105, in the constructors' standings, so the title fight between the two Mercedes drivers was the main story.
Ferrari was seen as the most likely challenger to Mercedes after its engine update at the Canadian round. Several other teams had also brought upgrades, including Williams and McLaren, so the field was not standing still.
A first-lap crash, a safety car and a Mercedes one-two that was never really in doubt once Rosberg had the start.
What made the Red Bull Ring unusual?
With only nine turns, the Red Bull Ring has fewer corners than any other circuit on the calendar. Teams could therefore run their power units hard, because very little slow corner work gave the cars a chance to recover.
Pirelli supplied the yellow-banded soft as the prime dry tyre and the red-banded supersoft as the option, the same choice as the year before. Before the race a parade of eight 1980s drivers showed off their old cars, with Gerhard Berger in a 1988 Ferrari, Niki Lauda in a 1984 McLaren, and Alain Prost in the 1985 MP4/2B.
How did practice and qualifying unfold?
Rosberg and Hamilton were the fastest in the first session on Friday, with Rosberg three-tenths of a second clear. Kimi Raikkonen was the only other car within a second of the Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel set the slowest time after a gearbox problem limited him to four laps.
Vettel was fastest in the second session, with Rosberg a tenth behind before he lost gearbox oil and stopped setting timed laps. Hamilton struggled on the super-soft tyres and was fifth, and Maldonado and Romain Grosjean were fourth and seventh. In the third session, Vettel was narrowly ahead of Hamilton until Alonso stopped on the start-finish straight and brought out a red flag. Rain then began to fall, and drivers could not improve.
Qualifying had three parts of 18, 15 and 12 minutes, with five drivers eliminated after each of the first two. Raikkonen was eliminated in the first part after a communication failure left him without enough time for another fast lap. Jenson Button was also out in Q1, and he carried a 25-place grid penalty into the race, while both Manor drivers qualified at the back.
On a dry track in the second part, the Mercedes pair were fastest, with Rosberg four-tenths quicker than Hamilton. Alonso failed to reach the top ten shootout for the seventh time that season, and Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in 14th place.
In the closing part both Mercedes drivers lost the rear at different spots, Hamilton at turn one and Rosberg at the last corner. Hamilton had improved on his second lap by two-tenths, and that was enough for his 45th career pole, which drew him level with Vettel on that count. Vettel was third, Massa fourth, Nico Hulkenberg fifth and Valtteri Bottas sixth. Grosjean could not post a lap time after a brake-by-wire problem.
How did the first lap change the race?
Rosberg got away well and overtook his teammate into the first corner. Coming out of the next turn Raikkonen had heavy wheelspin on his harder tyres, slid wide and crashed into Alonso's McLaren, which ended up perched on the Ferrari. Both drivers walked away, while the crash brought out the safety car.
When the safety car returned to the pit lane at the end of lap six, Rosberg defended against Hamilton and quickly built a gap. By lap eleven he led by 2.3 seconds, and Button retired on lap 12 with an intake system sensor failure. Kvyat came in at the end of lap one for a new front wing, and Stevens quit with an oil leak.
How did the race finish?
Hamilton closed to 2.2 seconds by lap 32; a lap later, when Rosberg stopped, Hamilton inherited the lead. That made it 17 straight races with at least one lap led, which matched a 45-year-old mark held by Jackie Stewart from the 1968 US race through to the 1970 Belgian event.
Further back, Bottas had lost sixth to Verstappen at the start and reclaimed it on lap 16. The Williams then slipped past Nico Hulkenberg for fifth on lap 26, though an earlier stop had already sent the German back ahead.
Hamilton pitted on lap 35 and drove over the white pit exit line, which earned a five-second penalty. It did not change his result, because he finished more than ten seconds ahead of third place. Carlos Sainz Jr also picked up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, but he retired on lap 34 with a technical problem, so it made no difference. Vettel's stop was worse, with his car stationary for more than 13 seconds because of a problem with a wheelnut.
Late on, Maldonado and Verstappen were battling for seventh. Pulling out of the Toro Rosso's slipstream on the main straight, Maldonado nearly lost the back end, and Verstappen then braked too late for the first corner, which gave the Lotus driver the place.
Vettel closed on Massa for the last podium place but could not pass him. Massa had his first podium finish of 2015, and Rosberg crossed the line three seconds ahead of Hamilton for his third win of the season and second in a row at Spielberg.
| Driver | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Winner | Third win of 2015; eleventh career victory |
| Lewis Hamilton | Second | Pole, 45th career; led 17 consecutive races |
| Felipe Massa | Third | First podium of 2015 |
| Sebastian Vettel | Fourth | Wheelnut problem cost more than 13 seconds |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Retired | Crashed into Alonso on the first lap |
| Fernando Alonso | Retired | Collided with Raikkonen on the first lap; fourth consecutive retirement |
| Romain Grosjean | Retired | Gearbox issues |
What did the drivers and team bosses say?
Rosberg told the podium interviewer, Gerhard Berger, that the start made the race and that he had managed to defend his lead. Hamilton, asked again afterwards, said the car had been spinning its wheels badly, which is why he got away slowly. Hamilton conceded that Rosberg had driven brilliantly, saying his teammate was simply faster over the race. He blamed wheelspin for his slow start.
Massa said Williams had taken the chances offered by another team's mistake, and that the changes made to the car had been positive. After the first-lap crash, Rosberg and Massa both said cockpit safety needed improving, while Hamilton had no opinion on the subject. Alonso admitted he had been frightened by the crash and looked genuinely worried about Raikkonen.
The stewards took no disciplinary action over the crash. After their battle for seventh, Maldonado said Verstappen had not respected the rules, and Verstappen shrugged it off as quite amusing. Sauber's team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said the team had to bounce back from an afternoon she described as horrifying.
What did the result mean for the championship?
Rosberg's win moved him to within ten points of Hamilton in the drivers' standings. Massa's podium was his first since Abu Dhabi the year before, and it was his first top-three finish of 2015. Mercedes had now produced five one-two finishes that season, and Rosberg's eleventh win tied him with Villeneuve, Barrichello and Massa. Massa also became only the eighth driver in the sport's history to score more than 1,000 championship points.
Williams stretched its constructors lead over Red Bull to 74 points, and Force India climbed to fifth after a second double-points result this year. Alonso's retirement was his fourth in a row, something that had never happened to him before in his career.
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