Michael Schumacher reckons he could have claimed the first podium finish of his comeback year in Australia had his front wing not been damaged by Fernando Alonso at the first corner.
The seven-time champion had made a strong getaway from his seventh place grid position but hopes of a good race were undone when a spinning Alonso tagged his W01’s front wing, the Ferrari driver having collided with eventual race winner Jenson Button on the inside of the corner.
The impact damaged Schumacher’s front wing and sent him scrambling across the grass, the German eventually dropping to the back of the field after pitting for a replacement nose cone at the end of the lap.
From there he endured a largely frustrating afternoon among the backmarkers, unable to make much headway as he spent a large chunk of the race stuck behind Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso.
However, a late surge saw him pass the Spanish youngster on the outside of the penultimate corner despite the pair banging wheels and then take 10th and the final points position away from Pedro de la Rosa in the closing laps.
Schumacher admits it was a tough afternoon for him, but took heart from Mercedes’s race pace – which he believes would have been good enough to challenge for third had he been able to get through the first corner unscathed.
“Indeed it [the race] was difficult,” he told reporters.
“But it started very well.
“Everybody struggled at the start, I actually got a pretty good [start] – I guess I was about third in the first corner until I got bumped off.
“And I guess had I gone through this [corner] there was no reason not to expect maybe even to finish third because our pace was good, the car was handling good.
“Yesterday before qualifying we changed the car a little bit to look already for the race pace – that compromised qualifying a bit – plus we had a visor stuck in our front wing.
“So both tacked together didn’t allow us to qualify better than [seventh] – both Nico [Rosberg] and myself we could have probably done [better].
“So pace is quite reasonable, we are not that far off.
“An exciting race - I guess spectators were made up from Bahrain, so we gave a bit of a better show and I had fun.”
Although Mercedes has looked closer to the front-running pace this weekend, Schumacher thinks next week’s Malaysian GP comes too soon for another jump forward in performance to be made.
However, the 41-year-old remains optimistic about the team’s chances of getting there eventually.
“It will be difficult because here we had a slight improvement on the car,” he said.
“I’m not completing aware, but I guess it’s going to be difficult within a week to have a real improvement, to expect.
“But we will make progress. I see a long season in front of us and we will do our best.”
In contrast, team-mate Nico Rosberg made a sluggish getaway on the grid from sixth position but managed to steer clear of trouble to go on and enjoy a solid race.
He admits tyre wear problems with the super-soft compound necessitated he had no option but to make a second pit stop later in the race – so he was therefore pleased to benefit from the late Hamilton/Webber tangle to take his second straight fifth place of the season.
"Fifth place is a good result after a mixed-up race today,” Rosberg said.
“I had a bad start in the wet and after that we lacked pace and I struggled with the option tyre.
“The rear degradation was pretty bad so we decided to go for a second stop and get some fresh tyres to try to attack the group ahead.
“Even with the tyre advantage, it would have been difficult to pass once we caught up and therefore 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."
