So that’s it the curtain raiser for the 2014 Formula One World Championship in Australia has been and gone.
Winter testing had hinted towards an unpredictable race in Australia and that certainly came to fruition.
Mercedes form in Spain and Bahrain during the winter tests, was something that also came to fruition.
Lewis Hamilton sticking the Mercedes on pole position to equal Nigel Mansell’s record of poles for a English driver was Saturday’s headline.
Whilst Nico Rosberg’s victory was Sunday’s.
‘That was an incredible day for us. To start the season with a win is unbelievable and I have to say a big thank you to everybody who was involved in building our car over the winter.’ Rosberg told formula1.com.
‘I always dreamed of having such a strong Silver Arrow and now it seems we are there. In the race, everything went perfectly for me. My start was great and I was able to push from there until the end, with our fuel consumption well under control.
Despite Rosberg’s personal success, the German was also mindful of the reliability issues that plagued team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s weekend.
The Mercedes might currently be the class of the Formula One grid, but its far from the bullet proof car that Rosberg had called for during winter testing.
2008 Formula One World Champion Hamilton had suffered a break down during Free Practice 1 on Saturday, which prevented him completing any running.
He of course responded by qualifying on pole position, only to suffer an engine problem on the parade lap before the Grand Prix began, which left him running with a faulty valve.
Both drivers were pleased with the pace of the car, but called for caution regarding their reliability problems.
Rosberg continued: ‘We saw over the weekend that reliability is still a concern and it prevented us from having a strong two-car finish. We have two weeks to improve that. I am very much looking forward to Malaysia and I would love to race again tomorrow!
Lewis Hamilton added: ‘My start didn’t feel great today and I had a lot less power than usual when pulling away, so it was obvious immediately that something was wrong. It looks like we only had five cylinders firing and, while I wanted to keep going, we had to play safe and save the engine. It’s unfortunate but that’s racing and we will recover from this. We have a great car and engine, and the pace was really strong today as Nico clearly showed. Big congratulations to him and the team for achieving the win, it’s a fantastic result for us.
Bittersweet weekend for Mercedes
