text: 2015 austrian grand prix the 2015 austrian grand prix ( formally known as the formula 1 grosser preis von österreich 2015 ) was a formula one motor race held on 21 june 2015 at the red bull ring in spielberg , austria . the race was the eighth round of the 2015 season , and marked the 29th running of the austrian grand prix . mercedes driver nico rosberg entered as the defending race winner , while his teammate , lewis hamilton , entered with a seventeen - point lead over him in the drivers ' championship standings . mercedes were leading rivals ferrari by 105 points in the constructors ' standings . hamilton started from pole position , but was overtaken by rosberg at the first corner . rosberg held the lead for the remainder of the race , barring brief periods during pit stops , and won by over three seconds . hamilton remained ahead of williams 's felipe massa to claim the runner - up position . ferrari driver sebastian vettel had been holding third position for much of the first half of the race , but a delay due to a stuck wheel nut during his pit stop dropped him into fourth place . former world champions kimi räikkönen and fernando alonso were eliminated on the first lap , after räikkönen lost control of his ferrari at the second turn and collided with alonso . the two came to rest against the safety barrier , with alonso 's mclaren atop the ferrari . report background having just nine turns , the fewest on the formula one calendar , the circuit offers very few low - speed sections and gave teams an opportunity to push their power units to their potential . as in the previous year 's event , and for the third straight event overall , the yellow - banded soft compound tyre were the prime dry selection while the red - banded supersoft compound were the option dry selection . pirelli also supplied two wet weather compounds : the green - banded intermediate compound and the blue - banded full wet compound . going into the race , lewis hamilton was leading teammate nico rosberg by 17 points , having won the previous race in canada . mercedes were leading ferrari by more than 100 points in the constructors ' standings . after introducing an engine update at the previous round in canada , ferrari were considered the most likely contenders for favorites mercedes . several other teams introduced updates to their cars as well , including williams and mclaren . supporting programme as part of the grand prix programme , a legends parade was held before the race , with a group of eight formula one drivers from the 1980s set to present cars , mostly from formula one 's first turbo era . participating were local favorite gerhard berger ( 1988 ferrari f1 / 87 / 88c ) , former mclaren teammates niki lauda ( 1984 mclaren mp4 / 2 ) and alain prost ( 1985 mclaren mp4 / 2b ) , nelson piquet ( 1983 brabham bt52 ) , jean alesi ( 1995 sauber c14 ) , pierluigi martini ( 1986 minardi ) , riccardo patrese ( 1984 renault ) and christian danner ( 1987 871 ) . free practice per the regulations for the 2015 season , three practice session were held , two one - and - a - half - hour sessions on friday and another one - hour session before qualifying on saturday . at the first session , both mercedes drivers were fastest , with nico rosberg being three - tenths of a second faster than teammate lewis hamilton . the ferrari of kimi räikkönen was the only other car to come inside one second of the mercedes . the other ferrari of sebastian vettel set the slowest lap time , as a gearbox problem prevented him from driving more than four laps . the mclaren of fernando alonso suffered from gearbox issues as well , but the spaniard was able to get back on track for the later part of the session . the team had brought a new aerodynamics package to spielberg , which was tested by alonso in free practice , who described it as " an improvement to the car " . after his problems in the first session , vettel was fastest in the second session on friday afternoon . nico rosberg was second , about a tenth of a second behind , but did not set any timed laps in the last twenty minutes as his car was losing gearbox oil . lewis hamilton meanwhile struggled on the super - soft tyres , making several errors that left him fifth . both lotus cars made it into the top ten , with pastor maldonado and romain grosjean in fourth and seventh respectively . max verstappen 's toro rosso was the fastest renault - powered car in eighth position , while the mclarens once again had to stop their session early . vettel was again fastest in third practice on saturday morning , narrowly ahead of hamilton 's mercedes . before all drivers were able to set times on the super - soft tyres , fernando alonso coming to a stop on the start / finish straight brought out a red flag , halting the session . when practice resumed , rain had started to fall , preventing the drivers from improving on their times . only force india 's sergio pérez set a lap on the faster tyre compound , ending up fourth in the session . qualifying qualifying consisted of three parts , 18 , 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively , with five drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions . during the first part of qualifying ( q1 ) , kimi räikkönen was eliminated due to a failure in communication , which meant he did not have enough time left for another fast lap at the end of the session . with the track still damp when qualifying began , times improved with every passing lap , with the drivers being able to switch from intermediate to slick tyres at the end of the first session . while the two manors once again qualified at the end of the grid , jenson button was also eliminated in q1 , leaving him with time penalties in the race , not being able to take the full extent of his 25 - place grid penalty . a dry track during q2 saw the two mercedes drivers fastest , rosberg four - tenths of a second faster than hamilton . fernando alonso failed to make it into q3 , the seventh time that season . he had missed the last part of qualifying seven times over the entire course of his ferrari stint in the five previous seasons . daniel ricciardo was eliminated in 14th place , meaning that he - like button - was unable to take the full extent of his ten - place grid penalty . the top ten contested the third part of qualifying . romain grosjean was unable to post a lap time after having problem with his brake - by - wire system . at the beginning of the session , both mercedes drivers set two fast laps . after the first time around , rosberg was ahead of hamilton , but the world champion improved on his second lap , being two - tenths of a second faster than his teammate . during their final flying laps at the end of the session , both drivers spun on different parts of the track , hamilton in turn one and rosberg in the final corner , meaning the order remained , with hamilton taking the 45th pole position of his career , drawing level with sebastian vettel , who qualified third . last year 's pole sitter felipe massa followed in fourth , while le mans winner nico hülkenberg finished fifth , ahead of the second williams of valtteri bottas . race at the start of the race , rosberg got off the line well and overtook teammate hamilton for the lead going into turn one . coming out of the following turn , kimi räikkönen was caught out by heavy wheelspin on his harder tyre compound going side by side and swept to the outside of the track , crashing into fernando alonso 's mclaren , who was lifted on top of the ferrari . both drivers were able to walk away unharmed from the incident . the collision brought out the safety car . at the end of the lap , daniil kvyat made a pit stop to replace a damaged front wing , while will stevens retired from the race with an oil leak . when the safety car came back into the pits on the end of lap six , rosberg was able to defend his lead against hamilton and quickly built a gap , leading him by 2 . 3 seconds by lap eleven . lap twelve saw the second mclaren of jenson button retiring with an intake system sensor failure . on lap 16 , valtteri bottas reclaimed sixth position from max verstappen , a position he had lost at the start , while hamilton started to close the gap to rosberg in front . the german however reacted and extended his lead back to four seconds by lap 27 . meanwhile , bottas went past le mans winner nico hülkenberg for fifth place on lap 26 , but an earlier pit stop brought the german back out in front of the williams . for speeding in the pit lane , carlos sainz , jr. was handed a five - second time penalty , which was not to be applied since the spaniard retired on lap 34 due to a technical problem . prior to the pit stops at the front of the field , lewis hamilton was able to reduce the gap to 2 . 2 seconds by lap 32 . when rosberg pitted one lap later , hamilton led the race . having thereby led a lap in seventeen consecutive races , hamilton equalled a 45 - year - old record set by jackie stewart , who had led at least one lap each between the 1968 united states grand prix and the 1970 belgian grand prix . hamilton pitted on lap 35 , coming out behind his teammate , driving over the white pit exit line in the process . this handed him a five - second time penalty to be added to his finishing time . sebastian vettel came in two laps later , being stationary for more than 13 seconds due to a problem with the of his rear right tyre and came out behind felipe massa in fourth place . meanwhile , romain grosjean retired with gearbox issues . vettel closed the gap to massa in the last podium position , but was eventually unable to pass the brazilian , handing massa his first podium finish of 2015 . toward the end of the race , pastor maldonado was racing max verstappen for seventh place . going past the start / finish straight , maldonado almost lost the rear of his car coming out of the toro rosso 's slipstream , while verstappen locked up going into turn one , handing the position to the lotus driver . rosberg , who complained about vibrations in his front tyres during the last laps , crossed the finish line three seconds ahead of teammate hamilton , taking his third victory of the season and the second consecutive one at spielberg , reducing his championship gap to ten points . post - race at the podium interview , conducted by gerhard berger , rosberg expressed his satisfaction with the victory , saying : " the start made the race . it was a great start and i managed to defend in the first couple of corners and then i really just tried to push flat out this time . i was really happy with the car and happy to see the gap open up to lewis , so it really worked out perfectly today . " meanwhile , lewis hamilton conceded that his teammate had done a " fantastic job , " stating that " [ a ] t the end of the day , he was quicker during the race . " speaking about his start at the post - race press conference , hamilton explained that his car suffered from a lot of wheelspin , which made him get off the line slowly . meanwhile , third placed felipe massa told the press that his team had " managed to get the opportunities , which it was a mistake of another team , " adding that the changes made to the car were " definitely positive . " when asked about the necessity of closed cockpits following the first lap accident between alonso and räikkönen , rosberg and massa stated that improvements to safety should be made in this area , while hamilton said he had no opinion on the matter . alonso stated that he was " scared " after the collision and was visibly concerned for his rival 's safety upon checking on the condition of räikkönen , and relieved that the accident left his former teammate uninjured . the race stewards decided not to take any disciplinary actions concerning the crash . following their battle for seventh place towards the end of the race , pastor maldonado accused max verstappen of " not respecting the rules , " though he went on to concede that it was great to be allowed to race on the limits by the stewards . the dutchman in turn stated : " it 's quite funny that pastor said that . it 's the only thing i say about it , it 's quite funny . " after suffering from multiple problems during and race and being unable to place any of their cars in the points , sauber team principal monisha kaltenborn said the team needed to recover from a " really horrifying race . " it was the fifth one - two finish for mercedes that season and massa 's first podium appearance since abu dhabi the year before . the victory moved rosberg closer to his teammate in the drivers ' championship , now ten points behind . it was his eleventh career victory , putting him level with jacques villeneuve , rubens barrichello and third placed felipe massa , who became only the eighth driver in the history of the sport to achieve more than 1 , 000 championship points . in the constructors ' championship , williams extended their lead to red bull to 74 points , while force india moved up to fifth after their second double - points finish of the season . in a weekend that the official formula one website described as " a new low " for mclaren , fernando alonso retired from the fourth consecutive race , something that had never happened to him in his career . classification qualifying notes ^ 1 – daniil kvyat received a ten - place grid penalty for exceeding the allowed internal combustion engine allocation . ^ 2 – daniel ricciardo received a ten - place grid penalty for exceeding the allowed internal combustion engine allocation . ^ 3 – fernando alonso received a ten- and two five - place grid penalties for exceeding the allowed allocation of three of his power unit components , as well as a five - place grid penalty for an unauthorized gearbox change . ^ 4 – jenson button received a ten- and three five - place grid penalties for exceeding the allowed allocation of four of his power unit components . race notes ^ 1 – lewis hamilton received a 5 - second time penalty for crossing the white line on pit exit . ^ 2 – carlos sainz , jr. received a 5 - second time penalty for speeding in the pit - lane . championship standings after the race note : only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings .