Virgin saw the chequered flag, however, the same cannot be said of Williams or Mercedes GP...
Virgin:
Jerome D'Ambrosio: "I'm really happy to have finished my first Formula One Grand Prix. I started really well and I felt comfortable in the car, even though I think that I could have gone a bit faster at the end of the race. But the most important thing is that we completed the race and this will give me plenty of experience which will be useful for the next races. I would like to thank the team for a great job all weekend. We had a very productive time and we will carry the lessons through to the next race in Malaysia and hopefully start moving forward from there."
Timo Glock: "I think we had quite a good speed in the race. I was behind Jarno Trulli, then caught him and got past him in the pitstop. Unfortunately at the pitstop the front left wheel was loose and I had to drive round for one lap very slowly then come into the pits. Unfortunately the drive pegs were damaged but we repaired it, and I at least was able to rejoin the race. For the first couple of laps it was okay but then the car had quite a lot of vibration, so I just tried to focus on finishing the race. In the end it was a little disappointing but at least we demonstrated good reliability and brought both cars to the finish."
Williams:
Rubens Barrichello: "It was a tough race for us. I was pushed out a little bit at the start, but then I had a good rhythm going and was doing quite a lot of overtaking until the incident with Rosberg. I wasn't planning on overtaking him at that point, I was defending from Kobayashi. I think we have one tyre with grip and one with less and so we have different braking points. Rosberg braked earlier, and was already in the middle of the corner before I could stop the car. The '33' was competitive today, which is positive going into the next race."
Pastor Maldonado: "We don't know exactly what happened with the car; we will have to look into the problem with our engineers. There was no warning, we just stopped and that was it for us. The start was great though. There were some big moments going into the first two corners, but I came through them ok. I was then getting settled into the race, everything was feeling ok in the car, I felt good and then it went. I'll now just look forward to getting back out there again in Malaysia."
Mercedes GP:
Nico Rosberg: "That was a disappointing first weekend of the season. It was a tough race until my retirement with the cars behind me pushing hard. I saw Rubens in my mirror and he was quite far away so I was surprised that he hit me. I immediately thought that was it and I had to pull over to stop the car. It's very sad for the team as they have worked so hard this weekend and throughout the winter. However we focus on the positive and it will be interesting to see how we perform in Malaysia. Melbourne is a very unique track and we will only know where we really are after the next couple of races."
Michael Schumacher: "The start of the season certainly has not worked out as we had hoped, and we will tick this race off now and concentrate on the next one in Malaysia. I am very sorry for our guys here and at the factory who have worked so hard and so well over the winter, but for some reason we could not bring their work into results this weekend. As for the race itself, I had quite a good start but was then hit in turn three which punctured the right rear tyre and resulted in damage to the floor. As the damage was quite substantial, we decided to stop the car for safety reasons. It was an even bigger shame that Nico was then knocked out of the race as he could have scored some good points for the team. I still believe we have potential, as we saw during winter testing, and I am convinced we will fight back."
