Austrian Grand Prix: RESULT

With the Williams cars of Massa and Bottas on the front row, Rosberg in third and Hamilton a lowly ninth on the grid, can Mercedes manage another one-two in Austria?

It did seem likely, after qualifying for the first Austrian Grand Prix in eleven years yesterday, that Mercedes faced a real uphill battle to even come close to yet another one-two, with Rosberg in third place and Hamilton in ninth. In the end, though, Mercedes triumphed, Rosberg took the win and Hamilton second place.

Hamilton’s performance in the first lap was sensational as he moved from ninth to fourth place, dispensing with Raikkonen and Kvyat at the start, passing Ricciardo in the Red Bull as he ran wide, taking Magnussen on the  way to turn two and dispensing with Alonso at turn eight.

The other early action came courtesy of Sebastian Vettel losing power in the early laps, and although he kept going he managed to run in to the back of the Sauber of Gutierrez before half the race was done and ended up retiring – the world champion’s third retirement of the 2014 season.

Meanwhile, having caught up to the leading pack of Massa, Botas and Rosberg, the next changes came with the first pit stops, with Rosberg in first followed by Hamilton (whose stop was slower), and when the Mercede and Williams had been in and come out, it was Rosberg in the lead followed by Bottas, Hamilton and Massa.

At this stage, Perez was actually in the lead as he hadn’t stopped, but on lap 27 Rosberg and Bottas got past and Hamilton and Massa did so on the following lap.

Although Bottas came close to passing Rosberg, the next change was off-track as the Mercedes pit stops after 40 laps saw Hamilton come out in front of Bottas and set about catching Rosberg, but despite it looking like he might have had a chance if the race was a few laps longer, both Mercedes were having brake issues and they ended up crossing the line in a Mercedes one-two, with Rosberg’s win extending his lead to 29 points.

Behind the front four – the Mercedes and Williams duos – it was Alonso claiming fifth place followed by Perez, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg, with Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari depriving Jenson Button of a points place by taking tenth ahead of the Brit.

We may now be seeing the odd chink in the Mercedes domination (particularly brake issues) but another one-two demonstrates they still have the measure of the rest of the field.

But it’s starting to get difficult for Hamilton to visualise a drivers championship now he’s 29 points behind Nico Rosberg. It’ll need a no-finish from the German to put Hamilton’s title bid back in play – but there’s plenty of time for that to happen, even if Hamilton’s demeanour is starting to suggest he’s seeing his title chances disappearing.