The Australian Grand Prix 2011 was the 1st round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on March 27th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Vitaly Petrov completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 45 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 11-19: 21 stops
- Laps 26-32: 7 stops
- Laps 35-38: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jenson Button's, stopping the clock at 16.867 seconds during his pit stop on lap 17, while the slowest one was was Rubens Barrichello's, who stopped the clock at 37.856 seconds, 20.989 seconds slower than Button, during his pit stop on lap 23.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 4 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
10Nico Rosberg
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1Heikki Kovalainen
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6Timo Glock
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9Sergio Pérez
2 stops
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8Michael Schumacher
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-Sebastian Vettel
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4Paul di Resta
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8Jérôme d'Ambrosio
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2Sébastien Buemi
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6Nick Heidfeld
-
-Lewis Hamilton
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3Vitaly Petrov
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12Kamui Kobayashi
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7Adrian Sutil
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7Jarno Trulli
3 stops
-
1Jaime Alguersuari
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2Mark Webber
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1Fernando Alonso
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1Felipe Massa
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2Jenson Button
4 stops
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1Rubens Barrichello
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 4.11 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.2 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 9 drivers out of the original 24 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, Rubens Barrichello, and Pastor Maldonado, both had a transmission problem, Nico Rosberg, and Michael Schumacher, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Heikki Kovalainen, who suffered a water leak on lap 19.
Transmission
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Rubens BarrichelloLap 48
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 9
Collision
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Nico RosbergLap 22
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Michael SchumacherLap 19
Water leak
-
Heikki KovalainenLap 19
There was also action outise of the track itself, and the stwearts decided to disqualify 2 drivers at the end of the race.
Disqualified
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Kamui KobayashiLap 58
-
Sergio PérezLap 58
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.778 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:23.529. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lewis Hamilton.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 11 out of the 16 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.