The Australian Grand Prix 2013 was the 1st round of the 2013 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on March 17th.
Kimi Räikkönen won the race after starting in the 7th position, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 53 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 4-10: 16 stops
- Laps 13-16: 5 stops
- Laps 18-21: 7 stops
- Laps 23-24: 4 stops
- Laps 33-34: 5 stops
- Laps 36-42: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 21.509 seconds during his pit stop on lap 36, while the slowest one was was Max Chilton's, who stopped the clock at 36.564 seconds, 15.055 seconds slower than Massa, during his pit stop on lap 6.
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
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 3 stops. Only 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 6 drivers tried a 2 stops.
The race winner, Kimi Räikkönen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
4Pastor Maldonado
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14Nico Rosberg
2 stops
-
5Esteban Gutiérrez
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1Paul di Resta
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6Charles Pic
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6Kimi Räikkönen
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5Daniel Ricciardo
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5Adrian Sutil
3 stops
-
1Jenson Button
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4Mark Webber
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2Romain Grosjean
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2Valtteri Bottas
-
3Max Chilton
-
2Sebastian Vettel
-
3Giedo van der Garde
-
-Felipe Massa
-
3Fernando Alonso
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1Jean-Éric Vergne
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4Jules Bianchi
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2Lewis Hamilton
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4Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 4.6 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.85 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
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Daniel Ricciardo, who experienced an hydraulic malfunction on lap 39, Nico Rosberg, who suffered from electrical problems on lap 26, Pastor Maldonado, who lost control and spun off the track on lap 24, and Nico Hülkenberg, who had a fuel system failure on lap 0.
Hydraulics
-
Daniel RicciardoLap 39
Electrical
-
Nico RosbergLap 26
Spun off
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 24
Fuel system
-
Nico HülkenbergLap 0
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.42 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:27.407. Mark Webber was right behind him, helping Red Bull score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
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 15 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.