Nico Rosberg was pleased with his result in Australia after qualifying sixth, and finished one place higher in the race.
“Fifth place is a good result after a mixed-up race today,” said Rosberg.
The wet start caused some problems for Rosberg as he lacked pace when he switched to the option tyre in his first stop.
“I had a bad start in the wet and after that we lacked pace and I struggled with the option tyre.”
The Mercedes driver was gifted a few places in the closing laps when Mark Webber hit the rear of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, causing both of them to lose places.
“It was good to make up a couple of places when Mark and Lewis had an incident, so I’m pleased with that. We need to keep on taking the points whilst we improve the car so overall it was a decent weekend.”
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn seemed happy with Rosberg’s result, but noted that tyre degradation was a concern throughout.
“Nico did a very good job today and pushed hard to get fifth place. He was in a reasonable position halfway through but we began to get concerned about his tyres. He had lost a position to Lewis and it looked like Mark would get past so we took the decision to bring him in.
“As expected with fresh tyres, he caught up with the pack towards the end and was able to take advantage of the ensuing incident with the cars ahead.”
