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Nico Rosberg confirmed Mercedes favourite tag by winning the season opening Australian Grand Prix by nearly 25 seconds. The German who started the race from third position, pulled into the lead of the race by the first corner and never looked back, taking his fourth career victory in the process.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton couldn’t enjoy the same podium glory after being forced to retire from the race due to a power unit problem. Similar problems also brought Sebastian Vettel’s race to a halt.
Coming back to the race finishers, Daniel Ricciardo held off his second place grid slot to become the first Australian driver to finish on the podium at the Albert Park Circuit which hosted its first Grand Prix in 1996.
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen repeated Lewis Hamilton’s 2007 feat by finishing on the podium in his debut Grand Prix. Jenson Button finished five seconds behind the Dane after making his two stops at exactly the right time, taking him from 10th on start of the race to fourth at the Chequered flag. After this three-four finish, McLaren leads the constructors table.
Fifth place went to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who spent majority of the race behind Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. He eventually passed the German by pitting one lap later, but in the process lost out to McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Those who thought Williams couldn’t simply repeat the pace they showed in pre-season were proved wrong by a superb recovery drive from Williams. After losing a tyre following a kiss with the barriers, Valtteri Bottas returned to the sharp end of the field, eventually finishing the race in sixth position and grabbing eight points. His teammate Felipe Massa got no time to recover after a first lap crash with F1 returnee Kamui Kobayashi. Kobayashi took full blame of the incident but will have to meet the Stewards after the race.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg ran as high as fourth before being undercut and overcut by Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso respectively. He couldn’t hold off Bottas either, finishing the race in the same place from where he started.
Kimi Raikkonen had a torrid time on his return to Ferrari. The Finn simply didn’t seem to have the pace. He finished in eighth place.
The final two points scoring positions were occupied by the Toro Rosso pair led by the experienced Jean Eric Vergne. 2013 GP3 world champion Daniil Kvyat performed well in his debut race, taking the final point.
Force India’s Sergio Perez and Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez finished outside of the top 10 in the first race of the season.
Meanwhile both the Marussias finished the race despite stalling on the formation lap. That wasn’t the case with their ‘historic rivals’ Caterham with both the green coloured cars retiring from the race due to varied reasons. ERS related issues were responsible for putting an end to Grosjean’s and Maldonado’s race.
