Mercedes dominated Sunday’s 2015 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, with with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Nico Rosberg second at Albert Park. Sebastian Vettel finished on the podium on his Ferrari debut, with Williams’ sole starter Felipe Massa took fourth ahead of star rookie Felipe Nasr, who gave Sauber their first points since 2013 on his F1 debut. RacingPole position for Lewis marks the 39th of his career and his 4th at the Australian Grand Prix. The result also marks the 36th Formula One pole position for the Silver Arrows and the 20th front row lockout for Mercedes-Benz. Both drivers completed a single run in Q1 (prime) and Q2 (option) before two runs in Q3 (option). In total, Mercedes-Benz power secured six of the top ten positions in qualifying this afternoon.
In Their Own Words:
Lewis Hamilton
It’s been a great start to the weekend and, honestly, it doesn’t feel like such a long time since the last race! It’s been a huge effort from all the guys and girls at the factories to have this kind of performance from our car and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to drive it. I’ve worked hard with the engineers yesterday and today to find a good balance. Then, in the session, I just tried to push hard and put the pieces together. It’s so much fun when it works right, because this is the competition that I live for. And I’m immensely grateful to everybody at Mercedes for the hard work that has gone into it so far. But there is still a lot to do tonight to study for the race tomorrow because it will be a huge challenge to try and fight for the win. We will be working as hard as we can to make sure we have a good race.
Nico Rosberg
Lewis did a good job today…he drove like a champ. I also felt that I had the speed in the car but I didn’t get together the perfect lap. In general I’m happy that the team again gave us a great car. It’s fastest out there this year, too, so many thanks to the factories back home. But tomorrow I still can make it happen because it will be a long race. A lot can still happen and I will put on a great show. My long run pace on Friday was better than Lewis but he did quite a few set-up changes on his car, so there may be more to come from him.
Toto Wolff
It was a great day for the team and it’s clear now that we have a very quick car. But you always have to stay careful – there are no points awarded on Saturday so we need to keep our feet on the ground and do our job properly tonight. It was a mega Lewis day out there on track. Both laps in Q3 would have been enough for pole position and he totally deserved it. For Nico, it was a bit messy today in Q3. He lost the car on his first run and had to pit, then decided to do his second run earlier so he could have some safety margin. He had a slow first sector – but the final sector was the quickest of anybody. He just didn’t put the pieces together today but P2 is still a strong result. Looking to tomorrow, we will not be getting carried away. Sebastian looks strong and the Williams are very competitive, on the straights particularly. We have the pace in the car – but any mistakes from our side will cost us dearly. We will keep our heads down, prepare the best we can and see what Sunday brings.
Paddy Lowe
It’s a great result for the team. The two laps from Lewis that were, in all honesty, much quicker than we had expected. And while it was a tricky session for Nico after the problem on his first run, he made a good recovery to lock out the front row. Overall, it hasn’t been an easy day running the cars. P3 proved much hotter than any other session of the weekend, with high track temperatures and the challenge of adapting to them. Then, in qualifying, we saw temperatures falling rapidly and a gusting breeze that was also frequently changing direction. That made it a real challenge for the drivers to put in clean laps, so credit to them both for a superb first qualifying result of the season and credit to the teams at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for what appears to be a great car.
DANIEL RICCIARDO, Finish Position: 6th, Start Position: 7th
“It wasn’t the most exciting race. After the start I was able to stay with Nasr, but I wasn’t able to get close enough to make the move. We finished the race and got some points which was positive, and there are things we can learn; I think on paper sixth was the best for us today. It was a shame for Dany, I feel for him I hope we have a smoother weekend in Malaysia. In terms of where we need to improve, the main issue is the drivability and the power, there are pretty big chunks that we know we need to find there. Beyond that it’s hard, as with the chassis itself I don’t think we’ve really been able to test it to its limits yet due to the other issues we’ve had. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we have got a lot of information from this weekend which will help us ahead of Malaysia.”
DANIIL KVYAT, Finish Position: DNF, Start Position: DNS (qualified 13th)
“I had to stop on the way to the grid as we had a problem; I think it was something to do with the gearbox. Obviously it’s not a nice feeling to watch the other drivers on track while you are here. From now on, it can only get better so we are staying positive. I have confidence in the team. We have another race in two weeks and will be pushing as hard as we can ahead of that.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: “A frustrating grand prix for us. It was disappointing to lose Daniil before the race started with a gearbox problem. Daniel did everything he could with the tools that he had. It unfortunately demonstrates that there’s a quite a lot of ground to make up, so sixth place was the best we could manage on a rather difficult day.”
THIERRY SALVI, Renault: “A very hard first race for the team. From the opening session of the weekend we’ve faced a number of issues, and for sure are not where we wanted to be in reliability and performance. This has cost lap time and points. The mapping and software need to be looked at in detail to give better driveability in the coming races. We’ve got to be realistic about what we can achieve but we can definitely move forward from what’s been a frustrating weekend overall. We are as disappointed as anyone but also resolved to fix these issues in Malaysia.”