With two Williams in the first row on the starting grid and Mercedes only qualifying as 3rd (Rosberg) and 9th (Hamilton), it looked like we were in for a somewhat different race yesterday as the F1 circus returned to Austria for the first time in 11 years. At the end though it looked pretty much as usual, With Rosberg winning before Hamilton, and Bottas (Williams) finishing 3rd.

Rumors were that the issues with the Kinetics power system that has caused Mercedes problems in Montreal were still not fixed and that the team was therefore not running at full power. Perhaps that was the case in the qualifying but as the race started and we all could witness how Hamilton overtook five (!) cars in the first lap to claim 4th place, any such doubts were dissipated.

In terms of comeback Hamilton was thus the man of the day even though Rosberg was clearly the winner in many aspects as he both won the race and increased his championship lead. Probably just as important was also that he overtook his father Keke in F1 race wins, being now at 6 wins in his still young career… As for other teams Williams are looking better and better, Ferrari is at least relatively stable, whereas Red Bull still struggles big-time, with Vettel losing all power in the 2nd lap, then somehow regaining it, only to have to park his car around 30 laps later. Toro Rosso didn’t have a great day either and neither of the teams will be able to challenge Mercedes this season.