(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)
Mercedes Nico Rosberg dominated today's opening Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne Australia finishing the race over 20 seconds ahead of home favourite Daniel Ricciardo who made history by becoming the first Australian driver to finish on the podium at his home race. It was an incredible debut F1 drive for McLaren's Kevin Magnussen as he took an incredible third place finish on a fantastic day for McLaren as team mate Jenson Button finished the race in fourth place.
It was a race of contrasts for the Mercedes team on the one hand Rosberg took a great victory but his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who started the race from pole position was forced to retire from the race with a possible cylinder issue with the engine. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel also had a disappointing race as he was forced to retire from the race with a KERS issue.
It was a great day for the Ferrari team as both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen managed to finish in the points despite the fact that both F14-T cars had electrical issues. Alonso finished the race in 5th place while Kimi Raikkomen recovered from a difficult qualifying to finish the race in 8th place.
It was a fantastic race for Valtteri Bottas and the Martini Williams Team, the Finn was forced to start the race from 15th on the grid following a gearbox change. He suffered a puncture during the race and as a result fell down the order but had a fantastic race and brought the FW36 home in a superb 6th place meaning that in the first race of the year the Grove based team have scored more points then they did last season.
It was a disappointing day for Felipe Massa in the second Williams as Kamui Kobayashi collided with the Brazilian who was forced to retire from the race.
Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg had a solid drive at a race that he failed to start last season as the German finished the race in 7th place just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. It was a fantastic day for the Toro Rosso team as Jean Eric Vergne finished the race in 9th place while Daniil Kvyat, making his Formula One debut for the Italian team finished the race in 10th place to collect one point.
The race start had to be aborted after Marussia's Max Chilton stalled on the grid. At the restart Jules Bianchi had an issue with his car but for Chilton he was able to complete the race and has now finished 20 Grand Prix in a row.
The Lotus F1 Team had a race to forget as Romain Grosjean opted to start the race from the pit-lane and even before the start of the race he was issued with a drive through penalty as the team released him from the garage 15 minute's before the teams are allowed to go to the grid. Neither of the Enstone based teams cars finished the race which was exactly what Romain Grosjean had predicted would happen.
So it was a fantastic first race of the new era of Formula One and for those people who thought that it would be boring that was far from a boring race. It was full of action.
Kimi Raikkonen said that 'We cannot be happy with where we finished but the car was running well, the car felt pretty ok. We scored some points so that's ok'
Jenson Button described the race as a 'Great day for us, a great result for the team' McLaren Race Director Eric Boullier said: 'Jenson drove superbly. Speaking about Kevin Magnussen, 'He drove a measured race and managed the stress and pressure over the weekend, He did a decent race and had a good race and did well in the car'.
McLaren head to Malaysia with some new parts for the MP4-29 and lead the Constructor's Championship while Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers championship.
Driver's championship Standings:
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 25 points
2. Daniel Riccirado Red Bull Racing 18
3. Kevin Magnussen McLaren 15
4. Jenson Button McLaren 12
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 10
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 8
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force Inida 6
8 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 4
9 Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 2
10. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1
Constructor's Championship Standings:
1 McLaren Mercedes 27 points
2 Mercedes AMG F1 25
3 Red Bull Racing 18
4 Ferrari 14
5 Williams Martini Racing 8
6 Force India 6
7 Toro Rosso 3
8 Sauber F1 Team 0
9 Marussia 0
10 Lotus F1 Team 0
11 Caterham 0
©Ben Johnston 2014
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