By Alan Baldwin
SPIELBERG, Austria – Nico Rosberg won theFormula One Grand Prix for the second year in a row in a Mercedes one-two finish with team mate Lewis Hamilton on Sunday.
Hamilton’s overall championship lead was cut to 10 points, after eight of the 19 races, with the Briton starting on pole position but beaten crucially into the first corner by the determined German.
The victory was Rosberg’s third of the season, to Hamilton’s four, and left him on 159 points to his team mate’s 169.
“I will try from now on,” grinned Rosberg when asked why he did not drive every race like that. “It’s an awesome feeling of course to win again here. The start made the race.
“It really worked out perfectly today.”[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560”]
Any hopes of a thrilling chase to the end were dashed when the double world champion, who finished 3.8 seconds behind, collected a five-second penalty for a pit lane infringement on the 35th of the 71 laps.
“Nico did a fantastic job today. He was quicker during the race, I had a bad start which lost me ground,” said Hamilton in podium interviews conducted by former F1 racer Gerhard Berger. “I was pushing as hard as I could.”
Brazilian Felipe Massa finished a distant third for Mercedes-powered Williams after holding off Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had lost crucial seconds on his one pitstop when the wheel gun jammed on his right rear tyre.
(Reuters)