Nico Rosberg, driving for Mercedes, won the 2014 Formula One season opener in Melbourne, comfortably defeating home favorite Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, by 26.7 seconds to claim the Australian Grand Prix. But after getting a podium finish on the track in his debut race with Red Bull, Ricciardo was subsequently disqualified and demoted to last place after race officials determined he had consistently exceeded the fuel consumption limits during the race – a new rule instituted for the 2014 season. Red Bull has appealed the decision. The runner-up position was then awarded to Danish rookie driver Kevin Magnussen from McLaren, who finished third on the track and his teammate and the fourth-place finisher on the track, Jenson Button, was moved up to third.
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull retired after only 12 laps with engine power issues while expected contender lewis Hamilton of Mercedes fell off after two laps with engine and gearbox failures.
The second race of the 2014 season will be at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 30, 2014.
2014 Australian Grand Prix Results:
1 6 Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
57 1:32:58.710 3 25
2 20 Kevin Magnussen
McLaren-Mercedes
57 +26.7 secs 4 18
3 22 Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes
57 +30.0 secs 10 15
4 14 Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
57 +35.2 secs 5 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas
Williams-Mercedes
57 +47.6 secs 15 10
6 27 Nico Hulkenberg
Force India-Mercedes
57 +50.7 secs 7 8
7 7 Kimi Räikkönen
Ferrari
57 +57.6 secs 11 6
8 25 Jean-Eric Vergne
STR-Renault
57 +60.4 secs 6 4
9 26 Daniil Kvyat
STR-Renault
57 +63.5 secs 8 2
10 11 Sergio Perez
Force India-Mercedes
57 +85.9 secs 16 1
11 99 Adrian Sutil
Sauber-Ferrari
56 +1 Lap 13
12 21 Esteban Gutierrez
Sauber-Ferrari
56 +1 Lap 20
13 4 Max Chilton
Marussia-Ferrari
55 +2 Laps 17
NC 17 Jules Bianchi
Marussia-Ferrari
49 +8 Laps 18
Ret 8 Romain Grosjean
Lotus-Renault
43 ERS 22
Ret 13 Pastor Maldonado
Lotus-Renault
29 ERS 21
Ret 9 Marcus Ericsson
Caterham-Renault
27 Oil pressure 19
Ret 1 Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull Racing-Renault
3 +54 Laps 12
Ret 44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
2 Engine 1
Ret 19 Felipe Massa
Williams-Mercedes
0 Accident 9
Ret 10 Kamui Kobayashi
Caterham-Renault
0 Accident 14
DSQ 3 Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull Racing-Renault
57 +24.5 secs 2