Sun: McLaren, BMW, Williams

Sunday 16th March 2008

Lewis Hamilton's season got off to a great start in Australia with a win while Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg completed the podium.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton: I feel fantastic - what a dream start to the season and my championship challenge. I am sorry not to have Heikki with me on the podium as a one-two would have been a great reward to the team. It's nice to have Nico here though as we have not shared a podium since our Karting days with Team MBM (Mercedes-Benz McLaren). It was a super race which I controlled from the beginning. I was able to drive at a steady pace without feeling any pressure which is always the ideal situation when you are leading. The three Safety Car periods meant that there was never time to relax, and the whole situation was a bit like Canada last year when I claimed my first victory. We constantly had to change our strategy and the strategists were on the ball throughout which was super. The car is fantastic to drive and the team has done a superb job. I have prepared much better this year than last, and it's important that myself and the team continue to push hard in the months to come."

Heikki Kovalainen: Obviously my competitiveness was better than the result shows. Unfortunately the last Safety Car phase prevented me from finishing second. Nevertheless I enjoyed the whole weekend working with the team on such a professional high level. My start was OK but during the first stint I had a bit of graining on the tyres, but it didn't affect me too much. In my second stint and especially in the last part of the race my car was really good and I was flying. I had a great battle first with Kimi and then Fernando which I really enjoyed. I managed to get past Fernando but then as I tore off a visor strip on the main straight I accidentally hit the pit lane speed limiter button and Fernando managed to get past me again. I am pleased but also a bit disappointed as we were looking strong for a one-two finish today."

BMW
Nick Heidfeld: This was a fantastic start to the season for us. The team was working extremely hard to solve the problems we had in the beginning with the F1.08. We made constant progress and we have not exploited the full potential of the car yet. At the start I had too much wheel spin and could not keep Nico Rosberg behind me. I thought it is going to become a difficult race because I expected him to pit earlier. But we stopped on the same lap and our crew did a really great job to get me in front of him. With my second pit stop I was lucky that the safety car didn't come out earlier and I could refuel as planned. In the last stint I had to take care not to kill the option tyres. Overall the first race without traction control was less difficult than expected."

Robert Kubica: My race went pretty well in the beginning. I was on a similar strategy to Nick and I had a good pace. Then the strategy was changed and this did not pay off for me. I got stuck behind Bourdais and lost a lot of time. I still had a chance to score some points, but then at the end of the third safety car period Nakajima crashed into the rear of my car and I had to stop."

Williams:
Nico Rosberg: I am really, really happy and I have to say that being on the podium in Formula One is a really great feeling. It's been a while since I have been here and its great for the whole team as they have been working hard over the winter, they have done a good job and made some real progress. I gave everything I had today, but it was a tough race on a street circuit in the heat which didn't make it easy. The team deserves my thanks for this great result and it really encourages me to feel that I can grow with Williams. I also want to thank my father for everything he has done to help me to get to this position. We have a solid race car and some good developments coming, but we don't want to get too excited because it's early days yet."

Kazuki Nakajima: To get to the end today was great, great to finish and great to get some points. It was really tough out there today physically, but on top of that there was so much going on. At the start, a car spun in front of me, turned side on and damaged my nose. Then with the various safety car periods, the team did a great job to swap my strategy to a one stop that put me in the points. Towards the end of the race, I had another incident when all the cars backed up into each other and I damaged my nose again. But it was good to be able to demonstrate my physical fitness and my consistency and I'm looking forward to Sepang which is a circuit I know better."