WILLIAMS started the Formula 1 season with both drivers finishing in the points at the Australian Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa was fifth in Melbourne, three places ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas to leave the Grove-based team third in the embryonic constructors' standings.

But the race was overshadowed by a spectacular crashing involving Fernando Alonso, who miraculously emerged unscathed after his McLaren rolled through the air twice following a 200mph collision with Esteban Gutierrez.

Nico Rosberg finished ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to win the incident-packed race.

Massa said: "To finish fifth, scoring some good points, is definitely a good start to the season.

"The red flag in the middle (following Alonso's crash) helped us to keep our strategy to one-stop and, thanks to that, we managed to overtake both Toro Rossos who had decided to go for different tyres."

That’s why I am happy with the result - and for Valtteri as well, he started P16 and finished P8, so it was a great drive for him.

Bottas, who qualified 11th but dropped five places due to a gearbox change, added: "The struggles we had with qualifying and then the grid penalty compromised the race.

"It wasn’t the nice clean race we were hoping for, but we still have points from both of our cars."

Next up is the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 3.