2018 Australian Grand Prix

2018 Australian Grand Prix
Race 1 of 21 in the 2018 Formula One World Championship
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Layout of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit
Race details
Date 25 March 2018
Official name Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
Location Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia
Course Temporary street circuit
Course length 5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Distance 58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 mi)
Pole position
Driver
Mercedes
Time 1:21.164
Fastest lap
Driver Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Time 1:25.945 on lap 54
Podium
First
Ferrari
Second
Mercedes
Third
Ferrari

The 2018 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race held on 25 March 2018 in Melbourne, Victoria. The race was contested over fifty-eight laps of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and was the first round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship.[2] The race marked the eighty-second race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix—which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928—and the twenty-third time the event was held at the Albert Park circuit.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was the defending race winner.[3] Lewis Hamilton started the race from pole—his seventh pole position in Australia,[4] a record for the event—while Vettel successfully defended his race win, the forty-eighth of his career.[3]

Report

Background

The race marked the competitive début of the "halo" cockpit protection device after eighteen months of rigorous testing.[5]

Tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft compounds.[6]

Drag reduction system

In the week before the Grand Prix, race officials confirmed the inclusion of a third drag reduction system (DRS) zone.[7] The detection point for the third zone was positioned on the approach to the Turn 11-12 chicane with the activation point on the exit to Turn 12. The existing DRS zones were unchanged from previous years, with one positioned on the main straight and the second on the straight between Turns 2 and 3.[8]

Qualifying

In his first run in the third part of qualifying Valtteri Bottas crashed and damaged his gearbox. As a result he received a five place grid penalty and started fifteenth. Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, Kimi Räikkönen qualified second, Sebastian Vettel qualified third. Ricciardo qualified fifth but started eighth. Verstappen, Magnussen, Grosjean started fourth, fifth and sixth. Hülkenberg started seventh, while Sainz and Alonso started ninth and tenth.

Race

After the start the top three stayed in the same order they started while Verstappen lost a place to Magnussen at the start. Sergey Sirotkin was the first retirement of the race when on lap 4 he retired due to a brake failure caused by overheating. On lap 9, Verstappen spun at turn one while chasing Magnussen and dropped down to eighth. Hamilton led Räikkönen, Vettel, Magnussen, Grosjean, Ricciardo, Hülkenberg, Verstappen, Sainz and Alonso. They stayed in that order until the first round of pit stops. On lap 18 Räikkönen pitted for softs. On lap 19 Hamilton pitted for softs to cover Räikkönen and emerged on track ahead of him. Verstappen pitted on lap 20. Magnussen pitted at the end of lap 21, but retired the next lap due to the cross-threaded wheel-nut being fitted loosely. On lap 24, Grosjean retired at turn 2 from seventh after pitting with the same problem as his team mate Magnussen resulting in a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) being called out. On lap 26 Vettel pitted under the VSC and emerged ahead of Hamilton and Räikkönen. Mercedes miscalculated the required gap between Vettel and Hamilton to prevent a jump under the safety car before Vettel's pit stop due to a software glitch. After the first round of pit stops Vettel led with Hamilton second and Räikkönen in third. Alonso pitted under the VSC to emerge ahead of Verstappen. On lap 27 the full-course Safety Car was called out. The safety car came in at the end of lap 31. This left the top ten Vettel, Hamilton, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Bottas, Vandoorne and Sainz. None of the top ten pitted again. Ricciardo hounded Räikkönen for the rest of the race, setting the fastest lap in the process. Alonso resisted the pressure from Verstappen while holding on to fifth place. Vettel took the chequered flag to win the Australian Grand Prix for the second consecutive year, followed by Hamilton and Räikkönen rounding the podium. Ricciardo, Alonso, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Bottas, Vandoorne and Sainz in that order completed the top ten, with Renault scoring their first double-points-finish since the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix. Ricciardo's 4th placed finish marked his joint best finish at Albert Park, but also the joint best finish for an Australian at the Australian Grand Prix, equalling his 2016 result, and Mark Webber's 4th place in 2012.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. Car
no.		 Driver Constructor Qualifying times Final
grid
Q1 Q2 Q3
1 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.824 1:22.051 1:21.164 1
2 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23.096 1:22.507 1:21.828 2
3 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:23.348 1:21.944 1:21.838 3
4 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:23.483 1:22.416 1:21.879 4
5 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:23.494 1:22.897 1:22.152 81
6 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1:23.909 1:23.300 1:23.187 5
7 8 France Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1:23.671 1:23.468 1:23.339 6
8 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:23.782 1:23.544 1:23.532 7
9 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1:23.529 1:23.061 1:23.577 9
10 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:23.686 1:22.089 no time 152
11 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 1:23.597 1:23.692 10
12 2 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 1:24.073 1:23.853 11
13 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:24.344 1:24.005 12
14 18 Canada Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1:24.464 1:24.230 13
15 31 France Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1:24.503 1:24.786 14
16 28 New Zealand Brendon Hartley Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 1:24.532 16
17 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:24.556 17
18 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc Sauber-Ferrari 1:24.636 18
19 35 Russia Sergey Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 1:24.922 19
20 10 France Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 1:25.295 20
107% time: 1:28.621
Source:[4]
Notes
  • ^1  – Daniel Ricciardo received a three-place grid penalty for failing to adequately slow down for a red flag during free practice.[9]
  • ^2  – Valtteri Bottas received a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Race

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 58 1:29:33.283 3 25
2 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 58 +5.036 1 18
3 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 58 +6.309 2 15
4 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 58 +7.069 8 12
5 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 58 +27.886 10 10
6 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 58 +28.945 4 8
7 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Renault 58 +32.671 7 6
8 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 58 +34.339 15 4
9 2 Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 58 +34.921 11 2
10 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 58 +45.722 9 1
11 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 58 +46.817 12
12 31 France Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 58 +1:00.278 14
13 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc Sauber-Ferrari 58 +1:15.759 18
14 18 Canada Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 58 +1:18.288 13
15 28 New Zealand Brendon Hartley Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 57 +1 lap 16
Ret 8 France Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 24 Wheel 6
Ret 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 22 Wheel 5
Ret 10 France Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 13 Engine 20
Ret 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 5 Hydraulics 17
Ret 35 Russia Sergey Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 4 Brakes 19
Source:[10]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Australia". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions". Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 6 December 2017. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 "2017 Australian Grand Prix Race – Provisional Classification". FIA.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 26 March 2017. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix – Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 24 March 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Halo impact becoming clearer to F1 teams". Speedcafe. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Howard, Tom (14 March 2018). "Pirelli reveals tyre selections for Australian Grand Prix". Speedcafe. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Cooper, Adam (21 March 2018). "Australian GP: Melbourne gets third DRS zone for 2018 F1 opener". Autosport. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  8. ↑ Howard, Tom (21 March 2018). "New DRS zone added to Albert Park F1 circuit". Speedcafe. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  9. ↑ Howard, Tom (23 March 2018). "Stewards issue grid penalty to Ricciardo". Speedcafe. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  10. ↑ "Formula 1 2018 Rolex Australian Grand Prix – Race Result". Formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. 25 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
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