In my new tradition of being behind in writing about the 2016 races, I present to you the Austrian Grand Prix – on the weekend of the British Grand Prix.
Actually, the 21 race calendar raises the point that we have 4 races in 5 weekends, which is very hard to keep up with!
Lewis Hamilton took a dramatic victory after a last lap collision with his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.
The championship leader had led at the start of lap 71 at the Red Bull Ring, but Hamilton got much better drive out of Turn 1 and pulled alongside Rosberg as they approached the uphill Turn 2.
In my view, Rosberg caused the accident. He didn’t know his brakes were failing. He did know, however, that the corner was coming up – but failed to turn for it, only turning once Hamilton had drawn alongside him.
The onboard shots show Rosberg fail to turn in at his normal position. There is no way that this was an accidental collision I don’t think.
As Hamilton went across the run-off area, Rosberg held onto the lead until his front wing disintegrated on the run to Turn 3. Hamilton moved ahead and went on to collect his third win in four races and his 46th Grand Prix win, and in the process claimed the 250th victory for British drivers competing in F1.
The race, in general, was relatively interesting – certainly compared to Baku. The short nature of the circuit meant that the cars weren’t too spread out and close racing was happening all over the place.
McLaren scored more points with Jenson Button and Manor secured their first point since Jules Bianchi scored for them in Monaco 2014, with Pascal Wehrlien finishing 10th.
Silverstone this weekend, is much longer, and doesn’t always create close racing. Let’s find out.