Australian Rosberg Wins Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton and Vettel Retire

Nico Rosberg conveyed on Mercedes’ promise as 2014 favourites with a leading success in the season-opening Australian Gran Prix.

His team mate, Lewis Hamilton began at pole position, but retired at lap three due to an engine problem. From the start of the race, Hamilton had a cylinder failing to fire and was down to fourth behind Rosberg and Ricciardo by the first corner.

Hamilton’s retirement left Rosberg unchallenged out front and the German drove a controlled race in what is clearly a main car to lead until the end.

World champion, Sebastian Vettel also retired a lap later than Hamilton, also due to an engine failure. Vettel also hit early power-unit trouble in his red Bull, which also caused him to retire.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, came second place, fending off Dane Kevin Magnussen who made a solar entrance for McLaren.

He also beat his team mate, with Jenson Button in fourth place and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso from Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in fifth.

Currently, Ricciardo is under investigation by race stewards, who are looking into unnecessary fuel flow in the Red Bull.

In total, eight cars failed to finish as F1 started a new epoch with high-tech turbo hybrid engines and a limit of no more than 100kg of fuel for a race distance.

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Rosberg says, “It’s been an amazing day. I’m over the moon really; everyone has worked so hard over the winter and to have such an amazing Silver Arrow. I’m really thankful to Mercedes for giving me such an amazing car.”

“There is a lot of work to do. We can still improve a lot and we must because the competitors are not going to be asleep,” he added.

Ricciardo said, “Two or three weeks ago I would have bet pretty much everything I had that we would not be standing up there. Full credit to the team for an unbelievable turn-around. I don’t know how they did it, but they did.”

“It’s hard to believe,” said Magnussen. “It seems so surreal. The car was so much better than it has been at any point. I just had exactly what I needed the whole race. The preparation we have done this winter has been fantastic.”