2015 F1 Round 8 Austrian Grand Prix – Rosberg passes Hamilton at the start to win, Massa holds third

The Austrian Grand Prix on June 21 ran for 71 laps. Starting second, Rosberg passed polesitter Hamilton and won in 1:30:16.930. Hamilton was officially 8.800 seconds behind, with Massa third.

Hamilton made a slow start, allowing Rosberg to take the lead before Turn 1. Apart from a brief reshuffle during the one-stop pit cycle, Rosberg maintained his lead to the finish and claimed his third victory of the season.

On the opening lap, Räikkönen suffered wheelspin at the exit of Turn 2 and collided with Alonso’s McLaren. Both cars hit the barriers and retired. The safety car was deployed, and racing resumed on lap seven. Neither driver was injured.

Hamilton crossed the white line as he left the pit lane and received a five-second time penalty. He crossed the finish line around 3.8 seconds behind Rosberg, with the penalty taking the official gap to 8.800 seconds. His second place was unaffected.

Vettel had been in contention for third, but a slow right-rear wheel change at Ferrari dropped him behind Massa. He closed on the Williams in the closing stages, but Massa held on to the podium place and Vettel finished fourth.

Bottas was fifth and Hülkenberg sixth. Maldonado used his late-race tyre advantage to pass Verstappen near the finish, leaving them seventh and eighth. Pérez was ninth, while Ricciardo took tenth and the final point.

Nasr was eleventh, Kvyat twelfth, Ericsson thirteenth and Merhi fourteenth. Button retired with a power problem. Stevens, Sainz and Grosjean also failed to finish, with the official classification retaining their completed lap totals.

Massa claimed his first podium of the 2015 season and Williams’ second of the year. Hamilton remained at the top of the drivers’ standings on 169 points, with Rosberg on 159 and the gap reduced to ten points.