Drivers’ championship
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Kimi Raikkonen | 25 |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | 18 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | 15 |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | 12 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | 10 |
| 6 | Mark Webber | 8 |
| 7 | Adrian Sutil | 6 |
| 8 | Paul di Resta | 4 |
| 9 | Jenson Button | 2 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | 1 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | 0 |
| 12 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 0 |
| 13 | Esteban Gutierrez | 0 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | 0 |
| 15 | Jules Bianchi | 0 |
| 16 | Charles Pic | 0 |
| 17 | Max Chilton | 0 |
| 18 | Giedo van der Garde | 0 |
| 19 | Nico Rosberg | 0 |
| 20 | Nico Hulkenberg | 0 |
| 21 | Daniel Ricciardo | 0 |
| 22 | Pastor Maldonado | 0 |
2013 Australian Grand Prix
- F1 fans’ videos from the 2013 Australian Grand Prix
- Raikkonen wins first 2013 Driver of the Weekend poll
- Positive rating for first race of 2013
- Red Bull and Mercedes not the only ones resorting to team orders
- First Predictions round won by Prateek727
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th March 2013, 7:47
Hallelujah! Ferrari lead the WCC! Now here’s something I thought I wouldn’t see again over the next decade.
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 7:56
Well, for sure that was long enough! Cheers!
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:02
And to prove all critics wrong once again, there are no team orders this early in the year.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
17th March 2013, 15:08
It would be stupid to, as Massa was faster in the early stages and only really lost position due to a good strategic decision on Alonso’s part.
Jian Xiong (@jianxiong)
17th March 2013, 20:50
That is irrelevant. Alonso attempted an overtake on Massa within the first lap or two if I recall correctly, and I think that is a pretty good indicator of one driver being faster than the other! Ferrari could easily have asked Massa to move aside at that point in time, but instead chose to let them race.
Solo (@solo)
2nd April 2013, 23:11
They couldn’t order Massa because Massa wouldn’t accept in such early stage. Massa buys the “good of the team” excuses when they are supposedly doing it because it’s the championship on the line but not right now when he can be in the championship and all is open.
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 7:53
Kimi did well but I think Ferrari has a little bit upper hand. They have very good race pace and Kimi was a little lucky because Ferrari and Red Bull only watched each other. Still, Lotus’s tyre management was very impressive even though one lap pace is not so remarkable. Mercedes looked good but reliability is concern and tyre operating seems not optimized yet.
Conclusion : This season gonna really interesting. Different teams have different strength and weakness.
Aimal (@aimalkhan)
17th March 2013, 8:00
Good result for Fernando and Ferrari. In the end they only got beaten by strategy. i think the ferrari is the faster than lotus on pure race pace. However, based on todays show, Kimi just needs to be within 20 seconds of the leading driver, make one less stop and win…. obviously it wont be that simple. i just hope Redbull don’t turn to Malaysia with their magic .5 advantage back in the race.
robfff
17th March 2013, 8:05
I think its a bit early to say. Race pace includes strategy. So if Reno make one less stop per race and as a result they win, then that means they have faster overall race pace due to tyre conservation.
Of course we never saw Ferrari try to conserve their tyres because they had committed to a three stop race. So we dont yet know if they had tried, could they have pulled off a two stopper?
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 8:09
@Aimal @robfff I think now Red Bull and Ferrari would be a little bit more concerned by Lotus. It would change their(and other top 10 drivers) strategy so we will see….
DT (@dt)
17th March 2013, 7:56
This season is set to be an interesting one. Massa is really doing well. Mclaren is the surprising one.. What is going on there? Hamilton will be grinning at the lack Mclaren’s lack of pace.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 8:16
Actually I would say Hamilton rather looking at why they cannot make the tyres last, as otherwise they could be challenging for the podium as well. Why would he care about McLaren when they are not a competitor for him on track right now.
N
17th March 2013, 12:44
I think Merc just lacked race pace, Ham went longer on his tyres than the other 3 stoppers, he just finished a good 30 seconds behind them.
Solo (@solo)
2nd April 2013, 23:17
Exactly. He could easily make the same strategy as Vettel and Alonso in terms of tyres. So maybe they lacked in terms of Lotus tyre managment but not from the others. Merc problem was clearly pace. Their race pace just wasn’t strong enough.
And thi actually quite similar to what happened to them last year in most races. Mostly they went backwards during the race while they got decent qualy.
They must dig deep and find some race pace if they want to score good in races.
tmax (@tmax)
17th March 2013, 8:20
@KeithCollantine Noticed an error in the constructors championship Position numbering. You started from 2 instead of 1.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
17th March 2013, 15:05
I think Lotus and Ferrari are looking like strong forces in the constructor’s battle: Massa’s definitely stepped up his game and if Grosjean makes more of an impression in the races those two teams will be pretty strong title contenders. Red Bull I’m not so sure of at this point because they don’t seem quite as good in the races as in qualifying, but it’s too early to be making judgement on that.
tmax (@tmax)
17th March 2013, 15:27
OZ was not the best of the tracks for Bulls. Except for 2011. They hardly outperformed anyone. They start to flower up starting Bahrain when the temps get warmer. They did not do well in much of the rain effected races last year. As Christian said they have optimized the performance to a Temperature window. If they are not in that window they start to suffer. except for quali i don’t expect them to hold up strong in Malaysia and China too. Unless it is warm and there are no rains.
But yeah Kimi is the man. They could do some very good numbers with those mediums. Only question is will they match the development pace of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull through the year. Only question what is the weakness window for other teams ?
More over we are yet to understand the
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
17th March 2013, 17:01
@tmax – very true; Australia has never been the most representative for where everyone is performance wise and I think it’s purely coincidental that 6 of the last 8 winners (discounting 2013) have gone on to win the title (either that or it is simply because the cars exerted a level of dominance in some of those seasons).
Red Bull will undoubtably come on stronger at more downforce-dependant circuits though and also I presume when the tyres are sussed out – I think the cold temperatures gave a similar situation to testing to some extent. Come Bahrain as you’ve said I’m sure they’ll be back up there with race pace.
James (@jamesf1)
17th March 2013, 18:04
How does Hulkenberg classify as 20th? He didnt even compete in the race…
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
17th March 2013, 18:06
It must be due to the fact that Maldonado and Ricciardo actually competed in the race yet retired, otherwise I don’t understand that either @jamesf1.
James (@jamesf1)
17th March 2013, 18:08
On that basis, Hulk shouldn’t even be classified. On further research, I assume it’s a mistake. Both FIA and FOM websites put him last.
Guelph (@guelph)
18th March 2013, 2:11
Since none of the drivers 19th and below have a classified finish, they are sorted by their best qualifying position so far.