In an extraordinary race with a surprising amount of retirements the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg proved once again that they drive in an entirely different world than the rest of the field, taking an undisputed 1-2 finish, while Sauber’s rookie Felipe Nasr and his team mate Marcus Ericsson gave the Swiss team a reason to celebrate after their troubles off track.
Lewis Hamilton
The current world champion did not make a single mistake during the first race weekend of the season. He had an excellent start from pole position and also profited from a slow start of his first rival Rosberg after the safety car restart. Afterwards, Hamilton managed to hold a comfortable gap to Rosberg behind him while saving tyres as well as fuel during most of the race. Sometimes the German began to catch up and put his team mate under pressure, but never came close enough to endanger Hamilton’s lead and the world champion began his season in the same fashion as the previous one ended, on the top step of the podium.
“It’s quite unbelievable, really, what this team has done”, states Hamilton in Mercedes’s post race press release. “It’s a great feeling to start of the season the way we finished the last and the car is just incredible, so thank you to the team. It was still a tough race though, as Nico was very quick throughout. It was about managing fuel and the tyres – trying to see how long we could push them. Once I’d built a two second gap it was about maintaining it. But when Nico turned up the heat it was tough. He drove really well and it’s a great result for the team to start the season with a 1-2.”
Nico Rosberg
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s first pursuer had a more disappointing weekend. Already at a disadvantage after qualifying behind his team mate, Rosberg also had a slow start and came under pressure from Felipe Nasr. He lost more time and was attacked by the Brasilian at the safety car restart as well, but managed to recover and stay within two seconds of Hamilton. As both drivers focused on managing their tyres and fuel to make their one stop-strategies work, the gaps between the Mercedes drivers decreased and increased, but Rosberg never came close enough to attack his team mate for the lead and had to settle for second place 1.3 seconds behind his rival.
Felipe Nasr
The Brasilian rookie was the man of the race for many. After Sauber’s race weekend had been disturbed by legal troubles and the team had not been able to run in FP1, which meant Nasr had missed valuable time to prepare himself and get used to the new circuit, he was nevertheless able to prove himself with a calm and mature drive. After just missing out on Q3, Nasr had a fast start and dashed up through the field, despite being involved in the incident that caused a safety car phase which interrupted the action. At the restart, he jumped fellow rookie Carlos Sainz jr. to take fifth place, which he held for most of the race despite being under constant pressure from Red Bull”s Daniel Ricciardo. Holding off the more experienced driver, Nasr was able to bring fifth place home and score Sauber’s first points since 2013.
“I am very happy with fifth position in my first ever Formula One race,” says the Sauber debutant in Sauber’s press release on Sunday. “It is such a big relief for the team and myself that we are able to score points, and I am very pleased about this achievement. It was a tough race. Right after the start it was quite messy in turn 1, as another driver hit my wheel. I thought the car was damaged a bit, but after a few laps I noticed everything was fine. After that, the race went according to plan. There was pressure from behind during the whole race, which was not easy. That was an emotional race for me and everyone in the team.”
Nico Hülkenberg
The German had a quiet and uneventful weekend, scoring points for the Force India team. Hülkenberg’s three stop-strategy worked well, and he took advantage of the small field and the incidents that struck other drivers to finish in a solid seventh place as he stayed out of fights and trouble. However, Hülkenberg stated that there is still room for more.
“I am very pleased with today’s result and starting the season with two cars in the points is always positive”, says the German on Force India’s website. “It was a good race; I didn’t make any mistakes and, while the reliability of our car helped us take advantage of the problems of others, at this stage in the season it is important to capitalise on any opportunity. We were ready when it counted; we had a good strategy and we delivered under the pressure. In terms of performance we are not yet where we would like to be, but everyone is working really hard to get there and make our car quicker. With points on the board we can now look forward to Malaysia in a couple of weeks and hopefully take another step forward.”
Marcus Ericsson
The other Sauber driver had an outstanding race as well, taking eighth place to make it a double points finish for the Swiss team. After a quick start the team decided to make use of the safety car in the first lap and called the Swede into the pits to change his mediums to soft tyres. Ericsson decided to switch to an agressive three stop-strategy, knowing he had the pace to make up the lost places, and it worked well, so that the Swede had enough life in his tyres to defend himself against Carlos Sainz Jr. in the last laps of the race for eighth place.
Sergio Pérez
The Mexican had quite an eventful race that ended with him taking the last point, finishing in tenth position. Pérez gained positions during the first laps of the race, but was then ordered to give a position back to Ericsson to avoid a penalty overtaking under the safety car. However, this meant that he had to concede two positions as Jenson Button ran between the Force India driver and the Sauber man. Having dropped down to 13th place, Pérez ended up in the gravel as he tried to adjust his visor, but the incident did not have any consequences for the Mexican as he was already running in the back of the grid. Nevertheless, Pérez challenged Button for 12th place depite running on slower tyres until there was contact between the two that tapped the Force India driver in a spin. Afterwards though Pérez was able recover well with a long second stint on soft tyres. Fighting first Carlos Sainz Jr. and then Button again for the last point, Pérez was eventually able to claim it to make it a double points finish for Force India.
“It was one of those unusual races where so many things happened, but I’m certainly happy to come away with a point and see Nico also score good points for the team,” says Pérez in the Force India press release. “We went for a different strategy compared to Nico to maximise the team’s chances so I started on the medium tyres in order to have the advantage on the softs at the end of the race. Unfortunately, after the safety car the FIA asked me to give a place back to Ericsson, which also meant dropping behind Button, and that was really painful for my race. Button was on the soft tyres and, although I was quicker, it was not easy to overtake and I lost a lot of track position. Still, I’m focussing on the positives of scoring a point from a difficult race, which is a good result for the team.”
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado
It was a weekend to forget for the Lotus F1 Team. After showing promising speed and qualifying in the Top 10, both drivers had their races ended prematurely. Grosjean suffered from a significant loss of power during the formation lap and despite making it to the starting grid, the Frenchman had to retreat to the pits after the first lap and retire from the race.
Maldonado did not have better luck: After a quick start there was contact in the middle of the busy pack during the first lap: A chain reaction started by Sebastian Vettel making contact with his team mate Kimi Räikkönen caused Maldonado to spin and the Venzuelan hit a wall, putting him out of the race.
Images courtesy of Sauber F1
