6 Memorable Moments From The Austrian Grand Prix

Sadly, the picture above is as close as the two Mercedes drivers got to battling for the lead in the Austrian Grand Prix. However, there were some good battles, funny moments and talking points. Nico Rosberg secured a clear win after beating fastest qualifier Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1, with Felipe Massa completing the podium for Williams. Here are six memorable moments from the race:

Kimi Raikkonen lost the rear of his car coming out of Turn 2, spinning into Fernando Alonso. Both hit the wall hard and Alonso’s McLaren ended up on top of Raikkonen’s Ferrari, just inches away from his helmet. A lucky escape, certainly.

2. Wheel-to-wheel action

The long straights and heavy braking zones at the Red Bull Ring meant we saw some good overtakes and battles, particularly in the midfield. This pass by Valtteri Bottas around the outside of Nico Hulkenberg has to be one of the best.

We don’t often see simple rookie mistakes from the Mercedes drivers, but Hamilton made a big one when he crossed the pit lane exit line after his stop. He was handed a five-second penalty, effectively killing his hopes of winning.

HasMaldonadoCrashedToday.com (and yes, that really is a website)? Well, almost. He tried overtaking Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the race, almost lost control as he dived out of the slipstream and was in the end unsuccessful. He did, however, move up to seventh later on, but not before another sideways moment.

Rosberg took victory and was so ecstatic with the result that he tried to crowd surf with his mechanics. It didn’t go too well, but nonetheless the result cuts the gap to Hamilton in the title fight to just 10 points, so the German still has plenty to smile about.

The post-race podium interviews didn’t go particularly well. Ex-F1 race winner Gerhard Berger conducted them. First he swore, then he accidentally called Rosberg “Lewis” (to which he responded, saying: “Nico, but it’s easy to get us confused”) and then he called Massa an “old man.”