RACE REPORT
The race stewards immediately launched
an investigation and called Rosberg to explain
his role in the collision and for continuing to
race when his car was badly damaged.
He was later given a ten seconds penalty
by the FIA race stewards, which did not affect
his final standings in the race.
Amid boos directed at him on the podium,
Hamilton said, “Nico made a mistake going into
Turn 1 so I had an opportunity in Turn 2. l left
a lot of room on the inside and he locked up
and went into me. He had a problem with his
brakes potentially. I’m here to win.”
Asked about the boos, Hamilton shrugged
as he pointed to the crowd, “That’s their
problem, not mine.”
As the two Silver Arrows powered downhill
towards Turn 3 it was clear Rosberg was in
trouble and compromised. Hamilton had seized
the moment and went on to score his third
victory of the season, while Rosberg limped
home to claim fourth.
Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen
managed to get past Rosberg’s stricken
Mercedes on the last lap. The Red Bull
teenager doing a fine job to keep the Ferrari
veteran at bay for a dozen or so laps until
the end – the pair finishing second and third
respectively.
Earlier in the race, Sebastian Vettel
suffered a blowout on his Ferrari while leading.
He crashed into the pitwall, halfway up the
start-finish straight, prompting a safety car for
several laps as the debris was cleared.
It appears that Ferrari got their strategy
wrong, keeping Vettel out too long on the red
band Pirelli super-soft tyres.