My top three talking points from the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix.=

The Gap at the Top

Nico Rosberg strolled to a win with an ‘on the limit’ drive to beat pole sitter Lewis Hamilton on an overcast Red Bull Ring in Austria. Rosberg secured his second win in a row in Austria with a first corner overtake on his teammate Hamilton. Both Silver Arrows appeared to get good starts but Rosberg’s second phase pushed him slightly in front of Hamilton and gave him the inside line for the first corner. He did not look back and controlled the race from the front with the gap rarely below 2 seconds. When Hamilton was handed a 5 second time penalty for overcooking his pit exit and crossing the white line the race for victory was effectively over. The gap a the top of the Drivers Championship now sits at only 10 points, with Rosberg winning three out of the last four races, putting more pressure on Hamilton to win his home Grand Prix at Silverstone on race week nine.

Ferrari’s False Dawn?

A surprise was the pace at which the Mercedes pulled away from Vettel, who started in third. The Ferrari had looked strong all weekend, especially on the soft tyre long runs in practice. When Kimi Raikkonen lost his back end and found Fernando Alonso on his nose not only did this ruin Raikkonen’s day it brought out the safety car and in so doing eliminated the need for fuel saving in the race. Ferrari’s practice strategy had taken a blow. The gap to Mercedes looked as big as it has all season when the chequered flag waved. Vettel had to settle for fourth after the usually sublime Ferrari pit stop crew couldn’t fit his back right tyre. A weekend of promise for Ferrari has finished with more questions than answers.

McLaren’s Woes Continue

McLaren had as bad a weekend as you can imagine, a lack of running, as worse grid starts as you could have, and two DNF’s. A big shunt for Alonso that could have ended much worse than it did caused for him to say he was ‘scared’. Ironically Alonso has been one of the drives to claim that F1 does not scare drivers anymore and is too safe, maybe this incident will call for him to re-evaluate that sentiment. Another DNF for Button on lap nine was as a result of an intake system sensor failure and as a ‘precaution’ because he didn’t want to ruin a new engine. It will be interesting to see how longer this ‘undamaged’ engine will now last. There will be calls from within McLaren for their drivers to remain positive as the face of the team and that the next race at Silverstone will represent another step forward. If the last two weekends have represented steps forward then surely it’s four steps back!

Honorable Mention

Felipe Massa on the podium was a fantastic sight to see. F1’s Mr. Nice Guy brings touch of class with him wherever he goes and although he was handed his position as a result of a poor Ferrari pit stop, he did extremely well to hold off a fast Sebastian Vettel on fresher tyres. A great weekend for Williams saw them gain some valuable points on Ferrari in the Constructors Championship.