Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg’s hopes of an eighth win in a row disappeared yesterday after a collision with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, while Dutch teenager Max Verstappen became Formula One’s youngest race winner in a sensational Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen, still only 18 and making his debut for the former world champions after being promoted from Toro Rosso a week earlier, beat Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen — at 36 twice his age — by 0.616 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, the previous youngest race winner thanks to his 2008 Italian Grand Prix victory for Toro Rosso at the age of 21, was third for Ferrari.
Photo: AP
Britain’s triple world champion Hamilton had started on pole position, with Rosberg alongside on the front row at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The German, aiming to make it five successive wins for the season, passed Hamilton around the outside of turn one and the Briton was then squeezed on to the grass as he tried to regain the lead at turn three.
His car skewed sideways and smashed into Rosberg’s, with both drivers ending up in the gravel and the safety car deployed.
Rosberg still has a lead in the championship standings, on 100, ahead of Raikkonen’s 61.
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