Yet again, Mark Webber’s Red Bull left him with a red face at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

Nothing worked in his attempt on Sunday to finally crack the podium at his home race, and his sixth place came after telemetry failures, tyre issues and a horror start from the front row of the grid which saw him slip from second to seventh within two corners.

Drivers around Australia will joke they are quicker away from the traffic lights in the family car than Webber off the start in a F1 race.

But the 36-year-old said there were plenty of below-the-line problems leading up to race time after he had qualified on the front row.

With qualifying squeezed into race morning after it was postponed the previous day because of bad weather, everything that could go wrong for Webber and his team did in the hours ahead of the race, and then during it.

“Before the race even started we had a lot of problems getting the telemetry from the cars to the pits. We lost KERS (the car’s kinetic energy recovery system), we lost quite a lot of things for the start,” Webber said.

“We were on the ropes really before the lights went out.

“And then we went quite heavy on that first set of tyres.”

Webber’s awful start was then followed by an uncharacteristically slow pit stop – one of three his Red Bull had to make for tyres as the car struggled to live with the new Pirellis being used in the sport this year.

But despite all that, Webber believed he and his car were off the pace, even if he had managed a better start and with better tyre life.

“It looked like we were not that quick anyway to challenge for the win as a team. But of all the times in Melbourne I needed a safety car or something to spice it up, it never came.

“It’s disappointing not to get more out of it.”

Webber’s best finish in 12 Australian GPs remains his fourth last year.

His Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel finished third as Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen swept to victory.

It was a tough weekend for the hometown hopes at the season opener, with West Australian Daniel Ricciardo failing to finish after an exhaust issue with his Toro Rosso forced him out after 42 of the 58 laps.

“We got quite a big hole in the bodywork next to the exhaust, and I also heard some strange noises in the car – it wasn’t a great Sunday for us,” Ricciardo said.