page_title: Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid
section_title: European rounds
hierarchical_section_title: Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid / Season summary / European rounds
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis Hamilton celebrating victory at the 2015 British Grand Prix
context_page_description: The Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid was a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Aldo Costa, Paddy Lowe, Geoff Willis, John Owen and Mike Elliott to compete in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship. The cars were driven by 2008 and 2014 World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both of whom remained with the team for a third and sixth season, respectively.
  The chassis was named "F1 W06 Hybrid" to represent the sixth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since 2010, while the hybrid was marked to recognize the utilization of fully integrated hybrid power units. The car made its competitive debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2015 season. After participating in 18 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement. This was the last Mercedes car to feature sponsorship from BlackBerry.
context_section_description: Mercedes locked out the front-row once again at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Hamilton on pole position for the fifth time and Rosberg in second place. During the race, Hamilton built up a sizable lead over Rosberg, leading every lap until a crash between Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean at turn one on lap 64 caused a "Virtual Safety Car" condition – officially used in Formula One for the first time – which was then quickly replaced by the normal safety car. Having held a lead in excess of 20 seconds beforehand, Hamilton was pitted under the safety car apparently with the intention of returning him to the track ahead of his pursuers. The Mercedes pitwall crew, however, miscalculated the gap allowing Rosberg to take the lead while Hamilton emerged from the pit exit lane marginally behind Vettel who had stayed out under the safety car behind Rosberg. With the safety car coming into the pits on lap 70 of 78, Rosberg retained the lead unchallenged, going on to win the race for the third consecutive year whereas Hamilton finished third, unable to overtake Vettel for second position.
  After the disappointment of Monaco, Mercedes quickly put to rest the criticism, with another 1–2 finish led by pole-sitter Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix. At the 8th round, the Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton took his 7th pole position of the season. In the race, Rosberg had a better start than Hamilton and he eventually led Hamilton to record another 1–2 finish. At the British Grand Prix, the two Mercedes cars qualified 1–2 for the 7th time in 9 races, with Hamilton taking his 8th pole. In the race, both Mercedes cars suffered poorer starts compared to both Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Massa surged through to lead into Abbey, with Bottas moving ahead of Rosberg and challenging Hamilton for second. At the first pit-stop phase, Hamilton pitted early and was able to use the "undercut" to pass Massa for first position. As the race continued, light rain came on at lap 35 and both Williams drivers struggled in the wet; thus Rosberg got past Bottas at Maggotts on lap 39. In the end, both Mercedes cars moved clear of the field and took their sixth 1–2 finish of the season. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton took his 9th pole of the season with Rosberg 2nd – the team's 7th front row lockout of the season. In the race, both Mercedes cars made poor starts and after a difficult race, Hamilton was given a drive through penalty and ended up finishing 6th while Rosberg suffered from a late puncture from contact with Daniel Ricciardo and finished in 8th place, ending Mercedes's run of 9 consecutive double podiums and 28 consecutive races with a podium finish.
  After the summer break, Hamilton took pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, ahead of teammate Rosberg by almost half a second, securing the 2015 FIA pole position trophy in the process with 10 pole positions out of 19 races on the calendar. In the race, Hamilton started well but Rosberg lost position due to wheel spin as new starting procedures were being introduced and enforced. As the race continued, a controlled drive saw Hamilton beat teammate Rosberg by 2 seconds, finishing the race with a 1–2. Hamilton claimed his second career 'grand slam' – pole position, fastest lap, led every lap and win, at the Italian Grand Prix. He also set the fastest lap times in all three practice sessions and all three segments of qualifying. Rosberg had a failure of a component which contaminated his new specification engine before the start of the qualifying, forcing him to run a power unit which had already competed in five race weekends from Canadian Grand Prix to Belgian Grand Prix. The power loss from the age of the engine cost him a front row grid slot in qualifying thus Rosberg had to settle for 4th. He was forced to retire in the closing stages of the race due to a failure of the engine.
caption: Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid, after winning the 2015 British Grand Prix
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