Rosberg, You Little Ripper!

It was a German who won nine races in a row to close out the 2013 season and it was again a German who won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. But on this occasion, Sebastien Vettel was nowhere to be seen; this was the Nico Rosberg show.

So far, 2014 has certainly lived up to its billing as an exciting new era of Formula One, with the most radical rule changes seen in recent history producing a radical shakeup of the established order as the teams struggle to master the highly complex new technology. Gone is the familiar Vettel dominance; his retirement on lap five ending an eleven-race podium streak stretching back to the British Grand Prix in June, and in its place an aura of unpredictability, even before degrading Pirelli tyres and DRS are entered into the mix.

Nico Rosberg starts the season in style with a
dominant performance Down Under. (Credit: Getty Images)

Fulfilling the promise shown in winter testing, Rosberg qualified a strong third in damp conditions and got off to a flying start to leap ahead of front-row starters Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo before the first corner, which saw F1-returnee Kamui Kobayashi clatter into the hapless Felipe Massa back in the pack. But while Hamilton never really got going and retired as early as lap three, having already lost several places due to a faulty power unit, team-mate Rosberg went from strength to strength and was never troubled out in front, crossing the line for his fourth career win a comfortable 24 seconds ahead of first-time podium finisher Ricciardo, making his first start for Red Bull in place of the departed Mark Webber.  

Sadly for the perma-smiling Australian and his legions of home fans, following a post-race stewards inquiry the Red Bull was disqualified for fuel-flow irregularities, promoting McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen to a remarkable second place, becoming the first Dane ever to finish on an F1 podium, ahead of team-mate Jenson Button, now Formula One's elder statesman at the grand old age of 34, who capped McLaren’s return to form with third, having started tenth.

One of the stars of the race was Williams’ Valterri Bottas, the young Finn yo-yoing up and down the leader-board after starting 15^th due to a pre-race penalty, stealthily moving into the points before suffering a puncture (which brought the race’s only safety car) and having to do it all again. He would eventually fall short of catching Fernando Alonso’s lonely Ferrari for fourth place, but it was a worthy drive nonetheless which begged the question where he could have ended up without the mishaps.  

Nico Hulkenberg customarily transcended the limits of his machinery to bring the Force India home in sixth, having run as high as fourth in the early stages, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who seemingly lacked confidence on his return to Ferrari, and Toro Rosso twins Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kyvat, the Russian teenager going some way to justifying his surprise inclusion in the team for this year ahead of the more experienced Portuguese prospect Antonio Felix da Costa.  Despite underperforming relative to Hulkenberg, Ricciardo's disqualification gave Serio Perez something to cheer, the Mexican rounding out the points in his first race since being dropped by McLaren.

Elsewhere, both Lotuses of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean unsurprisingly failed to make the finish after a very limited testing programme, while Britain's Max Chilton continued his run of consecutive finishes with 13th for Marussia, as both Caterhams failed to make the flag. 

[This article is reproduced from Concrete Online.]