Rosberg expected Red Bulls to escape

The German qualified second, but lost out to both Mark Webber's and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bulls at the start, and thereafter had a quiet run to the final podium spot.

"It is a fantastic result for us today," said Rosberg. "I am quite pleased but unfortunately the start didn't go too well, it was quite a lot down to me, I got too much wheelspin and lost out.

"From then on I knew it was going to be difficult to follow the Red Bulls. I was struggling in first stint with the options as [Robert] Kubica could stay pretty close which wasn't the plan.

"Once onto prime tyres I was comfortable. I was a bit worried about [Lewis] Hamilton initially and I was expecting him to be fast but he didn't get past people behind me."

He added that it was appropriate for Mercedes to break its podium duck on main sponsor Petronas' home ground - but warned that the team had to keep pushing as the gap to the pacesetters remained too large.

"It is a great coincidence that the first podium comes over here," said Rosberg. "I have to thank the team for the work put in over the winter. We definitely need to push on as we are not where we need to be."