Rosberg keeps P4 despite penalty

Editor

Nico Rosberg has kept his fourth place at the Austrian Grand Prix despite being given a ten-second timed penalty for causing a collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The incident occurred during the final lap of the race, where Rosberg was running in P1 and Hamilton breathing down his neck.

It was clear that the German was lacking pace but with one lap to go he was confident that he could keep Hamilton behind him.

However, as the Brit attacked Rosberg on his outside, they both collided, with the latter damaging his front wing and sacrificing vital points.

The 30-year-old ended up in P4 and was told that the incident was his fault.

Luckily though the former Williams driver was a good 14-seconds ahead of fifth placed Daniel Ricciardo, so the timed penalty has no effect whatsoever on his point-tally.

Hamilton is now only eleven points behind Rosberg on the Drivers’ Championship table after being trailing him by 24-points before the start of the race.

A statement from the FIA read: "Having taken note of the extensive evidence given by both drivers and the video and telemetry data, it was apparent that Car 44 (HAM) was in front of Car 6 (ROS) – i.e. more than fully alongside – and that the driver of Car 44 could have clearly made the turn (T2) on the track, if not for the resultant collision. Car 6 did not allow Car 44 “racing room” and hence the driver of Car 6 was responsible for the collision."