2018 Australian Grand Prix

 2018 Australian Grand Prix

Racing data
1st of 21 races in the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
Date:	March 25, 2018
Place:	Melbourne
Course:	Albert Park Circuit
Length:	307.574 km in 58 laps of 5.303 km
Pole position
Driver:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time:	1: 21.164 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Time:	1: 25.945 min (lap 54)
Podium
First:	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
Second:	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Third:	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari

The Australian Grand Prix 2018 (official Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix ) took place on 25 March at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne instead and was the first race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 2018 .

report

backgrounds

At the Australian Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Soft (yellow), P Zero Supersoft (red), P Zero Ultrasoft (purple), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

Compared to the previous year, there were several changes to the curbs of the route: at the exit of turn five they were lengthened by five meters, and the curb at the end of turn twelve was made flatter because of a bump there. At the exit of the Ascari and the Stewart , the curbs were replaced.

For the first time in the Formula 1 World Championship, there were three DRS zones on one track. The third zone began 104 meters after turn twelve . The associated measuring point was 170 meters before turn eleven . The other two zones were in the same places as in the previous year, the first zone began on the start-finish straight exactly 762 meters before the first corner, the Jones . After the Brabham began the second zone, which was 510 meters long. There was only one measurement point for these two DRS zones, where the distance to the vehicle in front was determined; he was eight feet from the Stewart . In the event of a successful overtaking maneuver on the start-finish straight, the driver in front was allowed to use the DRS again in the second zone.

Charles Leclerc ( Sauber ) and Sergei Sirotkin ( Williams ) made their debut at this Grand Prix in the Formula 1 World Championship.

Romain Grosjean , Nico Hülkenberg , Kevin Magnussen (six each), Stoffel Vandoorne (five), Carlos Sainz jr. (four), Kimi Raikkonen , Max Verstappen , Sebastian Vettel (three each), Marcus Ericsson , Lewis Hamilton (two each) and Lance Stroll (one) went into the race weekend with penalty points.

With Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel (twice each) and Fernando Alonso (once), four former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

Race stewards were Steve Chopping (AUS), Tim Mayer (USA), Emanuele Pirro (ITA) and Vincenzo Spano (VEN).

free training

Hamilton set the best time in the first free practice with a lap time of 1: 24.026 minutes ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen.

In the second free practice, Hamilton was again fastest in 1: 23.931 minutes ahead of Verstappen and Bottas. Training was interrupted because a timing cable had come loose on the track. Daniel Ricciardo fell short of the minimum time for red flags in the third section of the track and received two penalty points and a move back in the race for three starting positions.

In the third free practice session, Vettel set the fastest time in 1: 26.067 minutes, ahead of Raikkonen and Ericsson. The training started on a wet track, which then dried off towards the end of the training.

Qualifying

The qualifying consisted of three parts with a net running time of 45 minutes. In the first qualifying segment (Q1), the drivers had 18 minutes to qualify for the race. All drivers who achieved a time in the first section that was a maximum of 107 percent of the fastest lap time qualified for the Grand Prix. The best 15 drivers reached the next part. Hamilton was fastest. The Toro Rosso, the Sauber pilots and Sirotkin were eliminated.

The second section (Q2) lasted 15 minutes. The ten fastest pilots qualified for the third part of qualifying. Vettel was fastest. Ricciardo and Verstappen achieved their best time on the Supersoft compound, all other pilots on Ultrasoft . The Force India pilots, Stroll and the McLaren drivers dropped out.

The final section (Q3) lasted twelve minutes, during which the first ten starting positions were awarded. The section had to be interrupted after an accident by Bottas, which therefore set no time. Hamilton drove the fastest time with a lap time of 1: 21.164 minutes ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. It was Hamilton's 73rd pole position and the fastest lap time ever on this track. Hamilton also achieved his seventh pole position at the Australian Grand Prix, making it the sole record holder.

At Bottas, the gearbox had to be changed because of the accident. He was moved five positions back on the grid due to the premature gear change.

run

Hamilton stayed at the start in front of Raikkonen and Vettel, behind which Magnussen passed Verstappen.

As a result, the first three drivers pulled away, Magnussen stopped Verstappen. Ricciardo overtook Hülkenberg on the fifth lap and was thus in seventh place. Sirotkin, meanwhile, gave up the race with braking problems after a plastic bag got caught in his brake shaft and the brake overheated as a result. Shortly afterwards, Ericsson also retired with a defective power steering.

In the tenth lap, Verstappen spun in the Jones , so he fell behind Grosjean, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg. There was a lot of smoke at Gasly, he pitted and was eliminated.

On the 18th lap, Raikkonen, the first driver from the leading group, drove into the pits and switched to soft . He only lost one place to Vettel and came back on the track before Magnussen. One lap later, Hamilton also switched to Soft , coming back on track four seconds ahead of Raikkonen.

Verstappen also switched to soft in the 21st round . Shortly afterwards Sainz braked himself and drove through the run-off zone , so he fell behind Alonso. Magnussen drove to the pits and switched to Supersoft , but shortly after the pit stop he parked his vehicle with an incorrectly fastened wheel nut on the left back of the track. Two laps later, Grosjean and Hulkenberg changed tires. Grosjean was also sent back on the track, although the wheel nut on the left rear of his Haas was not properly attached. On instructions from his box, Grosjean parked the car at the side of the road after the Jones .

In order to be able to recover the vehicle, the race management called out the virtual safety car and all drivers had to slow down. Vettel, Ricciardo, Alonso, Bottas and Vandoorne used this for their pit stop. Vettel came back a few meters before Hamilton and stayed in the lead. Alonso came back on the track just before Verstappen, who overtook him. However, as there was no overtaking, Verstappen had to give the position back to Alonso. The race management corrected their decision and sent the safety car out onto the track to salvage Grosjean's car. Vettel led before Hamilton, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Vandoorne, Bottas and Sainz.

At the end of the 31st lap the race was released again. Hulkenberg attacked Verstappen, who was able to repel the attack. Hamilton put Vettel under pressure, but was not yet within striking distance. Ricciardo caught up with Raikkonen and attacked him, but Raikkonen defended himself. Alonso couldn't keep up with the four leading drivers and fell behind. Verstappen, Hulkenberg and Bottas, who had overtaken Vandoorne, caught up with him.

Hamilton drove the fastest lap of the race to date and reduced the gap to less than a second. After a driving mistake, he fell back more than two seconds, but then quickly shortened the gap to less than a second. Four laps before the end of the race, he reported the loss of grip on his rear tires to the pits by radio and fell back several seconds. Ricciardo drove the fastest lap of the race and caught up with Raikkonen again, but was no longer within striking distance.

Vettel won the race ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen. It was the 48th victory and the 100th podium for Vettel in the Formula 1 World Championship. Ricciardo, Alonso, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Bottas, Vandoorne and Sainz occupied the remaining points.

In the overall standings, the order was identical to the race result; in the constructors' standings, Ferrari was ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull Racing.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 W09 EQ Power +	Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power +	P
	77	Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Ferrari	05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF71H	Ferrari 062 EVO	P
	07th	Kimi Raikkonen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	03	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing RB14	Day, this year	P
	33	Max Verstappen
Sahara Force India F1 Team	11	Sergio Perez	Force India VJM11	Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power +	P
	31	Esteban Ocon
Williams Martini Racing	18th	Lance Stroll	Williams FW41	Mercedes-AMG F1 M09 EQ Power +	P
	35	Sergei Sirotkin
Renault Sport F1 Team	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault RS18	Renault RE18	P
	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso STR13	Honda RA618H	P
	10	Pierre Gasly
Haas F1 team	08th	Romain Grosjean	Haas VF-18	Ferrari 062 EVO	P
	20th	Kevin Magnussen
McLaren F1 Team	14th	Fernando Alonso	McLaren MCL33	Renault RE18	P
	02	Stoffel Vandoorne
Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	09	Marcus Ericsson	Clean C37	Ferrari 062 EVO	P
	16	Charles Leclerc

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1: 22.824	1: 22.051	1: 21.164	01
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1: 23.096	1: 22.507	1: 21.828	02
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1: 23.348	1: 21.944	1: 21.838	03
04th	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1: 23.483	1: 22.416	1: 21.879	04th
05	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	1: 23.494	1: 22.897	1: 22,152	08th
06th	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1: 23.909	1: 23,300	1: 23.187	05
07th	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1: 23.671	1: 23.468	1: 23.339	06th
08th	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1: 23.782	1: 23.544	1: 23.532	07th
09	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	1: 23.529	1: 23.061	1: 23.577	09
10	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1: 23.686	1: 22.089	no time	15th
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	1: 23.597	1: 23.692	-	10
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	1: 24.073	1: 23.853	-	11
13	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1: 24.344	1: 24.005	-	12
14th	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1: 24.464	1: 24.230	-	13
15th	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1: 24.503	1: 24.786	-	14th
16	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1: 24.532	-	-	16
17th	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	1: 24.556	-	-	17th
18th	Charles Leclerc	Clean Ferrari	1: 24.636	-	-	18th
19th	Sergei Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	1: 24.922	-	-	19th
20th	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1: 25.295	-	-	20th
107 percent time : 1: 28.622 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 22.824 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ Ricciardo was moved three positions back for driving too fast with red flags.
2. ↑ Bottas was moved five positions back due to a premature gear change.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	58	1	1: 29: 33.283	03	1: 26,469 (53.)
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	58	1	+ 5.036	01	1: 26,444 (50th)
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	58	1	+ 6.309	02	1: 26.373 (57.)
04th	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	58	1	+ 7.069	08th	1: 25.945 (54th)
05	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	58	1	+ 27.886	10	1: 26.978 (57.)
06th	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer	58	1	+ 28.945	04th	1: 26.880 (54th)
07th	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	58	1	+ 32.671	07th	1: 27.081 (57.)
08th	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	58	1	+ 34.339	15th	1: 27.019 (54th)
09	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	58	1	+ 34.921	11	1: 26,958 (57.)
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	58	1	+ 45.722	09	1: 27.944 (51st)
11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	58	1	+ 46.817	12	1: 27.633 (51st)
12	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	58	1	+1: 00.278	14th	1: 27,600 (57th)
13	Charles Leclerc	Clean Ferrari	58	2	+1: 15.759	18th	1: 28.759 (56th)
14th	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	58	2	+1: 18.288	13	1: 28,511 (55.)
15th	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	57	2	+ 1 lap	16	1: 28.176 (57.)
-	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	24	1	DNF	06th	1: 28.805 (23.)
-	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	22nd	1	DNF	05	1: 29.534 (21.)
-	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	13	0	DNF	20th	1: 30.649 (13.)
-	Marcus Ericsson	Clean Ferrari	05	0	DNF	17th	1: 32.210 0(4.)
-	Sergei Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	04th	0	DNF	19th	1: 32.573 0(3rd)

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 25th 02  Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 18th 03  Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 15th 04th  Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 12 05  Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 10 06th  Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 8th 07th  Nico Hulkenberg Renault 6th 08th  Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 4th 09  Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 2 10  Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1

Item driver constructor Points 11  Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 0 12  Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 0 13  Charles Leclerc Clean Ferrari 0 14th  Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 0 15th  Brendon Hartley Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 0 -  Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 0 -  Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 0 -  Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 0 -  Marcus Ericsson Clean Ferrari 0 -  Sergei Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 1  Ferrari 40 2  Mercedes 22nd 3  Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 20th 4th  McLaren-Renault 12 5  Renault 7th

Item constructor Points 06th  Force India-Mercedes 0 07th  Clean Ferrari 0 08th  Williams-Mercedes 0 09  Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 0 -  Haas-Ferrari 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sven Haidinger: Race preview Melbourne: Fear of Mercedes dominance. Motorsport-Total.com, March 21, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Stefan Ehlen: For more overtaking maneuvers: Third DRS zone in Melbourne. Motorsport-Total.com, March 21, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Australian Grand Prix 2018 in Melbourne - Result 1. Free Practice. Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Australian Grand Prix 2018 in Melbourne - result of 2nd free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Stefan Ehlen: Displacement: Ricciardo loses three starting places. Motorsport-Total.com, March 23, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Australian Grand Prix 2018 in Melbourne - 3rd free practice result. Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
7. ^ André Wiegold: Bottas crash and penalty: "Setback for self-confidence". Motorsport-Total.com, March 24, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 .