ASN’s 2016 Formula One driver standings have been updated following the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring over the weekend. The race was won by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, but not after some last lap drama with his teammate, Nico Rosberg, that resulted in Rosberg tumbling to fourth and allowing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari to luck into second and third place, respectively.
Defending champion Hamilton of the dominant Mercedes team started on the pole alongside a surprise Nico Hulkenberg of Force India after Rosberg had to suffer a five-spot grid penalty for switching out a gearbox. What should have been a cakewalk for Hamilton was exactly that for the first 25 laps until a poor pit stop temporarily allowed Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Rosberg to pass Hamilton coming out of the pits. But Vettel’s lead would last all of two laps before his tire shredded and Rosberg took over from there for the obligatory Mercedes parade laps until the last lap when Rosberg appeared to deliberately ride Hamilton out of Turn Two and damaged his front wing in the process. The resulting damage allowed Hamilton to win the race and dropped Rosberg to fourth as he limped home with the damaged wing.
Hamilton grabs the points for the race despite squandering his pole position and Raikkonen gets second for coming through on the podium – even if it was gifted to him by Rosberg – with McLaren’s Jenson Button being awarded the final point for the race by somehow managing to get his underpowered McLaren to sixth place.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award unquestionably goes to a frustrated Rosberg, who obviously resorted to devious tactics when he realized he was about to lose the race – and deliberately created an incident.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” award goes to Hamilton who whinged on the radio when his pit informed him that he was on a different tire compound than Rosberg.
The Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award goes to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff who a] attempted to blame Rosberg’s poor decision-making on bad brakes and b] seems unable to control the behavior of the kindergarten children he has driving his team’s cars.
2016 ASN Formula One Driver Standings [after Austrian Grand Prix]
1] Nico Rosberg – 15 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – nine points
3] Sebastian Vettel – eight points
4] Kimi Raikkonen – five points
5] Fernando Alonso/Sergio Perez/Max Verstappen – three points
8] Jenson Button/Carlos Sainz, Jr. – two points
10] Valtteri Bottas/Romain Grosjean/Daniil Kvyat/Stoffel Vandoorne – one point
Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after Austrian Grand Prix]
1] Kvyat/Rosberg – two points
3] Alonso/Bottas/Hamilton/Hulkenberg/Raikkonen – one point
Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing! Award [after Austrian Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton/Raikkonen – two points
3] Button/Kvyat/Ricciardo/Rosberg/Vettel – one point
Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award [after Austrian Grand Prix]
1] Bernie Ecclestone/Hamilton – three points
3] F1 Stewards/Ricciardo pit/Toto Wolff – one point