Wolff: Tyre strategy paramount in securing win

Mercedes win in Sunday's season-opening Australian GP was the result of mounting the right tyres at the right time according to the team's management.

When the race was red-flagged for 20 minutes following Fernando Alonso's massive crash with Esteban Gutierrez, Mercedes switched both its drivers to the medium compound in the hope they would not be forced to pit again.

The plan worked perfectly as Rosberg overtook race-leader Sebastian Vettel, whose Ferrari was on the super-soft rubber, and never looked back.

"Clearly the medium tyre after the restart was the key to the victory," acknowledged Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who underlined the perfect choice of chief strategist James Vowles.

"We were actually quite surprised by the tyre choices of the other ones [teams] and at that stage, it’s important to say that James and his team have done a really awesome job with making the right calls at the right time."

While both Mercedes drivers ended up on the same compound after the red flag, the choice had been anything but clear.

"The easier call was for Lewis," Wolff explained," because we knew the cars in front of him, Sainz, Verstappen and Ricciardo, that we wouldn’t be able to overtake them on track.

"We saw how difficult it was with Verstappen before, so the one stop was pretty obvious. Even though that’s probably not the race that suits Lewis best, who likes to attack on a tyre that makes that possible.

"For Nico it was the more difficult call up front to decide if we wanted to make it a defensive strategy and stick on the one stop, or make him compete with the other guys on the same tyres."

Had there not been a red flag, Wolff is uncertain whether the race would have gone Mercedes' way.

"We knew that it could come towards us, but because we didn’t have a lot of information about the medium [tyre], relying on last year’s assumptions and what we’ve seen at the test, it was good that we ran the medium quite a lot.

"It looked like we could survive and make it last. So, obviously the race went really badly against Ferrari."

Australian Grand Prix - Driver ratings

REPORT: Rosberg beats Hamilton after huge Alonso crash

AS IT HAPPENED: 2016 Australian Grand Prix 

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