Sadly for his teammate Lewis Hamilton, the Briton was forced to retire after two laps owing to a misfiring cylinder, which had cost engine power since the start. Rosberg's dominant win shows that the Mercedes AMG design is successful, but the experience of Hamilton shows that there are plenty of bugs to iron out still.
Worse still is the outcome for Red Bull Racing newcomer Daniel Ricciardo. After a brilliant race, the Aussie managed to finish second. However, post-race stewards decided his car's fuel use was above the regulated 100 kilogram fuel load per race. The reason is due to a faulty sensor, which reportedly Red Bull were warned of but still chose to run. Ricciardo has since been excluded from the race, though Red Bull plans to appeal the decision.
The outcome is a bonus for McLaren driver and F1 rookie Kevin Magnussen, who managed to finish third but is now elevated to second. He is now the first Danish driver to ever secure an F1 podium finish. Another rookie, Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso, became the youngest driver in history to finish in a point-scoring position. He came tenth but has since moved up to ninth.
Fourth place finisher, McLaren’s other driver Jenson Button, moves up to third, while fourth and fifth places went to Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas of Williams respectively.
There were plenty of other mishaps at Melbourne’s Albert Park yesterday. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing was down on power from the start of the race and retired after five laps. Both Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado had to retire because of technical issues, and both Caterham drivers also failed to finish; Marcus Ericsson because of a loss of oil pressure on lap 27 and Kamui Kobayashi because of an accident at the start of the race. The Japanese driver collided with Williams’ Felipe Massa, ending both of their races.
After the first race of the season, Mercedes AMG’s Nico Rosberg sits on 25 points in the Drivers’ Championship while McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button have 18 and 15 points respectively. In the Constructors Championship, McLaren leads with 33 points versus the 25 of Mercedes AMG and the 18 of Ferrari.
Below are top ten results of the 2014 Formula One Australian Grand Prix:
1) Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG
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2) Kevin Magnussen, McLaren
3) Jenson Button, McLaren
4) Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
5) Valtteri Bottas, Williams
6) Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
7) Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari
8) Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
9) Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso
10) Sergio Perez, Force India
