Austrian Grand Prix: Hamilton beats Rosberg in last lap thriller

Lewis Hamilton snatched the lead from Mercedes teammate, and arch rival for the title, Nico Rosberg in an thrilling race, but once again the pair collided this time the reigning world champion coming out on top while his teammate limped home.

The decisive moment of the race came on the final lap, as the pair raced towards the tight Turn 2 with Rosberg on the inside line missed the corner - appearing to go straight and beyond the normal turn in point - and missing the apex totally yet not locking up, forcing Hamilton wide. But the two touched with Rosberg's front wing disintegrating on impact.

Rosberg appeared to blame Hamilton, "I am just gutted at not winning. I led the race into the last lap. It was pretty intense. I went a bit deep into the corner, but that’s fine because I’m on the inside – I dictate. I was very surprised that Lewis turned in and caused a collision."

"We were battling, I was struggling a little bit with my brakes because they got a bit hot, my tyres were degrading so that gave Lewis a chance. Nevertheless, I was confident I could defend and bring it home. I had the inside position, a strong position... Very gutted. It’s unbelievable, this sport sometimes," added Rosberg.

The race stewards immediately launched an investigation and called Rosberg to explain his part in the collision and for continuing to race when his car was badly damaged.

Amid boos directed at him on the podium, Hamilton said, "Nico made a mistake into Turn One so I had an opportunity in Turn Two. 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 going 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.

Early speculation is that the Ferrari team got their strategy wrong, keeping Vettel out too long on the red band Pirelli super-soft tyres.

Starting from pole, Hamilton led in the early stage of the race as Rosberg made his way up from sixth on the grid.

The German climbed to third behind Raikkonen before his first pit stop on lap 10, when he changed from opening used ultrasoft tyres to soft tyres. Behind him at that stage were Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull.

Hamilton, though, stayed out, trying to eke a long stint out of his starting ultrasofts and the Briton continued in the lead until lap 21 when he too pitted for softs. It was a poor stop, however, and problems with the rear left wheel saw him emerge behind Rosberg.

Vettel now led and he too was trying to get the most out of his starting supersoft tyres. It wasn’t to be, however, and after 26 laps his rear-left tyre exploded on the pit straight. He careened into the wall and the safety car was deployed.

When the action resumed Rosberg now led ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Raikkonen.

A long second stint followed for the Mercedes driving during which Rosberg and Hamilton traded blows, one lapping fastest followed by an immediate response from the other.

The pace-setting led to the duo pulling away from the Red Bulls who were in turn slowly being reeled in by Raikkonen who had been disadvantaged by the stops and the safety car.

Raikkonen eventually passed Ricciardo on lap 57 and set off in pursuit of Verstappen. That was Ricciardo’s cue to make a final stop to take on ultrasofts for a final charge. He rejoined behind McLaren’s Jenson Button but soon passed the Briton to reclaim P5. With 24 seconds between him and Raikkonen, though, there was no hope of further progress and he settled for fifth and 10 points.

Ahead, Hamilton was closing on Rosberg and eventually the German erred. Hamilton, seeing his chance pushed hard and attempted a move around the outside into Turn Two. As Hamilton was forced wide and Rosberg took a hard line, collision and controversy were inevitable.

Hamilton powered on to take his third win of the season and the 46^th of his career while Rosberg was left to finish fourth and to face a post-race stewards’ investigation for ‘causing a collision and failing to stop with a seriously damaged car’.

Verstappen took the second podium finish of his young career, while Raikkonen salvaged Ferrari pride with third.

With Rosberg fourth and Ricciardo fifth, sixth place went to Button, the Briton's best result since the US GP of last year.

Romain Grosjean took Haas back into the points with seventh place, while Carlos Sainz was eighth for Toro Rosso. Ninth place went to Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Pascal Wehrlein scored Manor’s first point of the season with 10^th place.

[poll id="106"]

* Provisional results