It has taken him 111 grand prix starts, but Nico Rosberg can at long last call himself a Formula One race winner after his success in China.
It was a weekend to remember for Rosberg and his Mercedes team in Shanghai as he first went from Friday practice specialist to pole sitter on Saturday and then to grand prix winner on the Sunday.
The German, who is in his third season with Mercedes, feels his first race victory was long overdue.
"[It is an] unbelievable feeling. [I am] very cool, very happy and very excited," the elated German said.
"It's been a long time coming for me and the team.
"We didn't expect to be that fast today. We knew we had good chance to be in the? front but we didn't expect to be that fast.
"Thanks to whole team for working very hard also, and for improving the set-up. I was struggling in first two races with race pace but here it came good."
He added: "It is fantastic. It's been the perfect weekend.
"Everything couldn't be better. I'm very happy. It was a great race and it's impressive to see how we have progressed so quickly. We had struggled in the first two races, but we made some changes and it has all come good. I am happy for all of us and I was looking forward to seeing how we get on."
Mercedes' decision to go for a two-stopped strategy worked like a charm for Rosberg, but he was in such imperious form that he could have stopped a third time and still come out in front of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who finished P2 and P3 respectively.
Rosberg, though, was happy to cruise home and now hopes the team can carry the momentum into the next few races.
"The whole weekend has gone fantastically," he said.
"It was all about managing the tyres and it all went well. I just concentrated on going fast. I was making sure I carried home the race win, there was no point in pushing it when I was so far ahead. It's great how we are moving forward so fast now. The team should get used to it [celebrating] now because there will be more to come."
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