Marcus Ericsson says scoring his first points “was a big goal achieved” as he finished eighth in the Australian Grand Prix.

Having started outside the top ten, Ericsson completed a three-stop strategy and overtook Carlos Sainz Jr late in the race to take eighth, three places behind team-mate Felipe Nasr. While pleased to get his first career points having driven for Caterham last year, Ericsson says being able to bounce back from a tough weekend with a strong race performance was the biggest positive for him.

“It was a big goal achieved so I’m really happy, of course,” Ericsson said.

“I’m not 100% happy with how [the weekend] went. It was a difficult weekend but also I was a bit unlucky with practice two; I only did ten laps and then my suspension broke, then we had brake issues on Saturday in FP3.

“So that held me back quite a lot in qualifying yesterday so I was not too happy with that going out in Q1, but I think I made up for that with a strong race and some good moves on Carlos.

“I think overall we have to be happy, and to have both cars in the points as well is a great start to the season.”

Click here for the full gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Norris reckons Mercedes used higher power mode in Spa FP2

Lando Norris reckons all Mercedes-powered cars may have benefited from higher power unit settings in…

32 minutes ago

Permane declares Tsolov ‘next in line’ for F1 promotion

Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane has declared Red Bull junior Nikolas Tsolov "next in…

2 hours ago

Belgian GP: Friday's action in pictures

Formula 1 kicked off its Belgian GP weekend in earnest on Friday at Spa-Francorchamps, and…

14 hours ago

Alpine addresses Gasly crash and consequences in Spa FP2

Alpine has moved quickly to ease concerns after Pierre Gasly's heavy crash in Friday's second…

14 hours ago

Verstappen says ‘real gap’ to Mercedes exposed in FP2

Max Verstappen opened the Belgian Grand Prix weekend by topping the first practice session, but…

15 hours ago

Antonelli hails ‘massive turnaround’ between Spa Friday sessions

Kimi Antonelli believes Mercedes found the answers it had been searching for after a dramatic…

16 hours ago