Austrian GP win relatively easy, says Mercedes F1's Nico Rosberg

Rosberg passed reigning world champion Hamilton at the start and after he held off a fightback for the rest of the first lap, the German was never really threatened.

"To get a day where it's one of the easier wins and not having pressure from Lewis behind was great to see," said Rosberg who reduced the deficit to Hamilton in the championship to 10 points.

"I had the pace advantage over him so all in all it was an important day.

"I'm happy now with how it has gone. It's coming in my direction so that's good.

"I just had a great car and everything worked out."

Rosberg said after qualifying that he was going to really attack the start and the German admitted that was key to his success at the Red Bull Ring.

"I had that in my mind a little bit," said the German, who has won three of the last four races.

"The start was really the most important part of it.

"It's the biggest opportunity so I had to try everything and go for it and nail the start.

"Of course a lot of it is down to my engineer who does the clutch settings and we've also worked on the clutch to improve that.

"It's the guy that goes into Turn 3 first that then has the best chance of winning of course because it's so difficult to overtake in the same car.

"I was very happy to see the gap open up at times and then in the second stint because racecraft was the area I need to work on from last year and that's really coming good now."