Booing and birthday blues

Lewis Hamilton was booed on the podium after a last-lap collision with Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg handed the triple Formula One world champion a dramatic first Austrian Grand Prix victory on Sunday.

Championship leader Rosberg, who had been chasing an Austrian hat-trick after wins in 2014 and 2015, nursed his damaged car over the line for fourth place with his advantage cut to 11 points.

“I am gutted, it’s unbelievable,” said the German, accusing Hamilton of turning in and causing the accident that broke his front wing as the slow-burning race suddenly exploded into controversy and acrimony.

Hamilton disagreed and so did the stewards who gave Rosberg a meaningless post-race 10-second time penalty for causing the collision and a reprimand for continuing with a damaged car.

“I was on the outside, it wasn’t me that had the crash,” said the Briton, who now has three wins to Rosberg’s five this season, over the team radio. After nine of the season’s 21 races, Rosberg has 153 points to Hamilton’s 142.

The team revealed Rosberg had suffered a problem with his brake-by-wire system which went into ‘passive mode’ at the end of the penultimate lap while Hamilton closed in on fresher tyres.

The crowd, small in comparison to the previous two years with rows of empty seats in the grandstands, made their disapproval evident with whistles and boos as Hamilton was interviewed on the podium.

“That’s not my problem, it’s their problem,” the surprised Briton, who started on pole, shrugged when asked about the noise.

Dutch teenager Max Verstappen finished second for Red Bull at their home track with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen third after team mate Sebastian Vettel crashed out on his 29th birthday when a rear tyre exploded and sent him into the barriers.

“Obviously the idea was to go on as long as possible with that set of tyres and to shape our race on that idea, but I don’t think it was an aggressive strategy,” the German said of an accident that brought out the safety car.

Hamilton’s victory was the 250th in Formula One by a British driver since the championship started in 1950 and the 46th of his career, setting him up perfectly for his home race at Silverstone next week.

He had led from the off while Rosberg, who had started sixth after collecting a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change following a practice crash, reeled off a series of impressively quick laps.

The German jumped ahead of Hamilton when the Briton pitted on lap 21 of 71 and came out behind his team mate with the two separated by less than two seconds before their second pitstops and a final chase to the line.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull with Britain’s Jenson Button finishing sixth for McLaren after running in second place for the opening laps.

Frenchman Romain Grosjean was seventh in a Haas ahead of Spaniard Carlos Sainz in a Toro Rosso and Finland’s Valtteri Bottas for Williams, who had Felipe Massa start in the pitlane and then retire.

German rookie Pascal Wehrlein scored his first point in Formula One, and his Manor team’s first of the season, with a remarkable 10th.

TEAM-BY-TEAM ANALYSIS (listed in championship order)

MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 1, Nico Rosberg 4): Hamilton won from pole and set the fastest lap for his 46th career win and third of the season. In between, Rosberg led for much of the race but lost out when the two Mercedes drivers collided on the last lap. The German, who started sixth after a grid drop for a gearbox change, collected a 10-second penalty and a reprimand. He now leads Hamilton by 11 points.

FERRARI (Kimi Raikkonen 3, Sebastian Vettel retired): Vettel, who started ninth after a grid penalty, crashed out on lap 27 while leading when his rear right tyre exploded. Raikkonen started fourth. The podium was the Finn’s fourth of the season and he and Vettel are now tied on 96 points.

RED BULL (Max Verstappen 2, Daniel Ricciardo 5): Verstappen’s second podium, following his win in Spain, and Red Bull’s first at their home circuit. The 18-year-old had started eighth, led the race for a while and benefited from Rosberg and Hamilton’s collision.

WILLIAMS (Valtteri Bottas 9, Felipe Massa 20): Massa started from the pit lane after having to revert to an old specification front wing due to structural damage suffered in qualifying. He had a puncture, requiring an extra stop and then retired with high brake temperatures. Bottas did a two-stop strategy but suffered with tyre wear.

FORCE INDIA (Nico Hulkenberg 19, Sergio Perez 17): Hulkenberg started on the front row but made a slow start and fell back through the field, also collecting a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. He retired with brake problems but was classified. Perez crashed out on the final lap, while eighth, also due to brake failure.

TORO ROSSO (Carlos Sainz 8, Daniil Kvyat retired): Sainz started 15th and was nearly last after his second pitstop. He did 35 laps on the soft tyres to get into the points. Kvyat started from the pitlane after a big crash on Saturday and retired after one lap with an unspecified mechanical issue.

MCLAREN (Jenson Button 6, Fernando Alonso 18): The Honda-powered team closed the gap on Toro Rosso with Button’s best result of the season after the Briton started third. He was second for the first few laps. Alonso retired with a battery pack failure towards the end.

HAAS (Romain Grosjean 7, Esteban Gutierrez 11): Grosjean’s fourth points finish of the season for the US-owned newcomers. He has scored all the team’s points so far.

The Frenchman started 13th, two places behind Gutierrez, and made just one stop. He was penalised five seconds for pit-lane speeding.

RENAULT (Jolyon Palmer 12, Kevin Magnussen 14): Still no points for Palmer this season but at least he finished ahead of Magnussen, who was handed a five-second penalty for blocking a rival.

MANOR (Pascal Wehrlein 10, Rio Haryanto 16): Wehrlein, who started 12th, scored the first point of his F1 career and the team’s first of the season.

SAUBER (Felipe Nasr 13, Marcus Ericsson 15): Sauber are now the only team yet to score a point this year. The team will have an engine update in Britain next weekend.