Sunday: A Positive Start to the Season for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – 5th:

I’m really happy with our result today and it’s much better than we hoped for the first race of the season. The car seems really good on track here; I had a good first stint and managed to keep the super softs longer than the others. We had planned for two stops but switched to a three-stop strategy during the race. I’m not sure where we lost time compared to the cars ahead, so we’ll have to study that. The most important thing is that we have a car that can perform really well, and the team did a fantastic job to secure this position. Thanks to everyone here and at the factory for their support for my first race weekend with Mercedes. Now, we’re looking forward to Malaysia next weekend, hoping we can do even better after this positive start to the season.

Nico Rosberg – Retirement:

An electrical issue ended my race, which is unfortunate because I was on a two-stop strategy and in a strong position to achieve a good result. However, there are many positives to take from this weekend. The team developed a good car over the winter, I had a good pace in qualifying, and the car also performed well in the rain. It seems we have started to close the gap with the leaders, and we can build on that.