The Australian Grand Prix 2018 was the 1st round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on March 25th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 20 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 18-27: 18 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 20.953 seconds during his pit stop on lap 21, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 25.504 seconds, 4.551 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 25.
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 1 stop. Only Brendon Hartley, Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
1Kimi Räikkönen
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1Lewis Hamilton
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2Max Verstappen
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12Kevin Magnussen
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1Carlos Sainz
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2Esteban Ocon
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10Romain Grosjean
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-Nico Hülkenberg
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1Sergio Pérez
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2Stoffel Vandoorne
-
7Valtteri Bottas
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2Sebastian Vettel
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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5Fernando Alonso
2 stops
-
1Brendon Hartley
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5Charles Leclerc
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1Lance Stroll
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.5 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.67 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
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 were some incidents during the race, with 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Romain Grosjean, and Kevin Magnussen, both had a wheel problem, Pierre Gasly, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 13, Marcus Ericsson, who had issues with the steering of the car on lap 5, and Sergey Sirotkin, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 4.
Wheel
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 24
-
Kevin MagnussenLap 22
Engine
-
Pierre GaslyLap 13
Steering
-
Marcus EricssonLap 5
Brakes
-
Sergey SirotkinLap 4
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.664 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:21.164. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Kimi Räikkönen.
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 13 out of the 15 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 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.