Hulkenberg aims to bounce back at Sepang after retiring from Australian GP

The Force India driver has never made the second lap of the Albert Park race having been involved in contact at Turn 1 in both the 2010 and 2012 events.

On this occasion his left rear tyre was struck by Mark Webber's Red Bull, who himself had been hit from behind.

"I don't seem to have much luck at Albert Park," said Hulkenberg. "I'm still not really sure what happened, but I got hit when I turned into the first corner on lap one.

"It's such a shame because I had made a great start, moved up a couple of positions and then I just felt somebody tap me from behind. There was a puncture and the suspension was damaged so my race was over and I had to park up.

"These things happen when 22 cars are battling going into a tight first corner, but it's really frustrating to miss out after such a good qualifying session. The good thing is that I will be back in the car in five days' time, which is the best way to bounce back and get over the disappointment."

Team-mate Paul di Resta salvaged a point from a race he admitted he had struggled to get his car to compete in the midfield pack.

"It's always nice to start the season with a point, but it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me," he said. "Fortunately I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner, which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line for tenth.

"It's clear we have a lot of work to do because we were struggling for pace at the start of each stint, which hurt my overall race pace."