Rosberg keeps Mercedes ahead in Austria

2015 F1 season

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Austrian Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg kept Mercedes on top of the times sheets as the teams enjoyed better weather on the second day of running at the Red Bull Ring.

Rosberg lapped within seven-tenths of a second of team mate Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time at the track on a day that was mostly dry with occasional light showers.

Esteban Gutierrez was the only other driver to lap below the 70-second mark but the Ferrari was over eight-tenths of a second slower than Rosberg’s Mercedes.

Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann completed a mammoth programme of over 150 laps for Toro Rosso, equivalent to more the two grand prix distances. Every car running covered more than 100 laps, with the exception of Valtteri Bottas’s Williams.

It was a productive day for McLaren as Fernando Alonso lapped marginally quicker than McLaren managed during the race weekend. Alonso, who retired on the first lap of Sunday’s race, was running the revised nose McLaren introduced for the weekend as well as other new bodywork components.

Yesterday’s pace-setter Pascal Wehrlein traded his Mercedes for a Force India, where the team continued work on their upgrade package which is due to make its debut at the British Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo ended the day seventh-fastest for Red Bull following a lengthy interruption in the middle of the session for a set-up change, and an early stoppage due to a brake problem which he said “wasn’t a major issue”.

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifference
1Nico RosbergMercedes W061’09.113117
2Esteban GutierrezFerrari SF15-T1’09.9311100.818
3Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes FW371’10.029790.916
4Marco WittmannToro Rosso-Renault STR101’10.1031580.990
5Pascal WehrleinForce India-Mercedes VJM081’10.2531321.140
6Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda MP4-301’10.7181101.605
7Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault RB111’10.827101.714
8Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari C341’10.9221161.809
9Jolyon PalmerLotus-Mercedes E231’11.2881382.175

2015 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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14 comments on “Rosberg keeps Mercedes ahead in Austria”

  1. not sure what to make of this test. McLaren did many laps… but come Silverstone it will back to it’s usual stuff of a few laps and engine failures. Merc look really quick… i think williams maybe getting closer to Ferrari, RBR’s 4th place in the championship may come under threat with an USB 4 nosed Force India..

    1. Is that USB shaped nose of force india legal?

      1. maybe it’s the “not techinacally a hole, despite definately being a hole”

        I hope it’s something clever like that, and that they found out something other teams didn’t

        1. It’s like an inverse F-duct. They take air from the outside and direct it underneath the car. This way you have a long nose but still have the benefits of a short nose. This means Force India doesn’t has to spend millions of pounds on crash tests like Red Bull or McLaren.

      2. Last month I dreamed about an open single hole on the centre of a long style nose, the F2008 pushed air through the centre portion of the nose but this new SFI nostrils concept is baffling. I can only think that SFI needed 2 holes rather than a single large one to pass the crash test.
        Only 2 teams have achieved in producing a true short nose and both have slim bulkhead sections. The rest haven’t been able to make their noses as short as desired. Ferrari is still yet to introduce their true 2015 nose.

        1. i feel this solution of two holes could be better than the short nose, it has allowed FI to keep similar outer shapes and at the same time get more flow similar level to one with shorter nose. FI did not do a fast lap with new config, so we will only know in silverstone…

  2. Excellent job from Wittmann in what is probably only a curiosity fueled outing and a gesture in leau of Da Costa’s programme with BMW’s DTM venture. It is a shame that the FIA thinks Marco has been sitting at home since his impressive campaigns in the F3 Euro Series, with the ludicrous new super-license system blinds to exploits in a series with one of the most eclectic grids in the world. If Mercedes want fellow German DTM star Pascal Wehrlein to have any kind of F1 future beyond the odd test appearance, they need to be on the phone to Manor (or Stefano Domenicali) quickly…

  3. Um, did Daniel Riccardo do only 10 laps?

    1. 116 in 8th.. there’s a typo with the last 4 slots but Alonso did 104 laps in 7th, Palmer late on improved for 6th. Nasr 9th.

  4. As @countrygent has eluded to, and correct me if I am wrong (I used to have a handle on this super-license stuff but now it’s a bit more of a blur), does the rule where if they complete a certain amount of testing mileage it gives them a super-license, still exist this year? Allowing Wehrlein and others to pick one up before the crazy points system. I actually don’t mind the points system idea, just the way it is being used right now is silly. The drop of points after 3 years to me is a bit too short, last time I heard, if you win the European F3 title, that will never be taken away from you (Unless your Lance Stroll, perhaps).

    If not, I don’t forsee a future for Wehrlein and maybe many more others. I mean never say never, but it doesn’t look good.

  5. Mercedes looks soo much more refined than others, especially from the front.
    Nothing is going to beat a works Mercedes factory team in Formula 1 unless the rules change. Others are only limping behind them without any hope catching them and passing them.
    That 1 victory that Ferrari got was just down to the extreme temperatures and humidity Malaysia had to offer. I bet that Mercedes will continue with 1-2 finishes untill a complete overhaul of the technical regulations.
    Just wanted to spit it out ;)

  6. The Sauber’s laptime is not too good.

    1. Doesn’t have to mean a thing. 1:10.9 is faster than Rosberg’s fastest lap in the race, and a bit over a second slower than Nasr’s fastest qualy lap. So it’s a lap time that’s in the area of maximum fuel load unpredictability. It could’ve been anything ranging from stellar pace with a relatively high fuel load to a really poor lap with qualifying fuel. And since there’s not really much sense in trying to improve one’s own Spielberg qualy pace after that race, I’d say Sauber’s lap times were probably affected by a fuel load that definitely wasn’t negligible.

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