2013 Australian Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

51 comments on “2013 Australian Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps”

1. 

   Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
   17th March 2013, 15:21

   Surprisingly Jules Bianchi set the 11th-fastest lap of the race in the Marussia, while using super-soft tyres in his final stint – quicker than Adrian Sutil could manage on the same tyres in his Force India.

   Sometimes you really feel F1 is broken or there’s a bug with Pirellis. I mean, Sutil was pulling away from Vettel/Massa/Alonso on worn tyres. And Kimi set fastest lap 2 laps from the end. And Bianchi manages to lap quicker than Sutil on the same tyres, around the same time of the race.

   It’s a big mind**** sometimes ! xD
   1. 

      Bendanarama (@bendana)
      18th March 2013, 10:24

      Or, alternatively, you could see it as being a great equaliser – if the tyres are reacting like that, it means a new challenge for the teams to rise to.
2. 

   andae23 (@andae23)
   17th March 2013, 15:26

   Incredible that Raikkonen was able to match Vettel’s, Alonso’s and Massa’s time without making a third stop. There is also an interesting distance between Raikkonen first and second stint on the mediums: at the beginning of that first stint he was going very fast and eased off later on – but still he was able to produce some good lap times even with old tires. His second stint was way more consistent, probably how you would want it to be, again with the fastest laps near the end of the stint. That final stint is probably what won him the race: pretty much everyone (notably Massa) began the stints on the mediums with quick lap times and settled with slower laps near the end. Taking it easy at the beginning of the stint is what keeps the tires alive – Raikkonen gave a masterclass of how to use the tires properly today.
   1. 

      andae23 (@andae23)
      17th March 2013, 15:28

      distance = difference
      how did I manage to do that?
   2. 

      Fernando Cruz
      17th March 2013, 16:54

      “Incredible that Raikkonen was able to match Vettel’s, Alonso’s and Massa’s time without making a third stop.”

      Vettel, Alonso and Massa lost time behind Sutil at some point of the race and that possibly helped Raikkonen…
      1. 

         andae23 (@andae23)
         17th March 2013, 17:35

         Vettel was running right on Sutil’s gearbox, but then Sutil started to open up a gap to Vettel within six laps. So I don’t think they were held up by Sutil, nor does it explain the massive amount of time Raikkonen somehow found.
         1. 

            robfff
            17th March 2013, 17:58

            By then the damage was done to the three-stoppers strategy’s. When they would have normally been able to stretch out a good lead, they were stuck behind Sutil. So when Vettel’s tyres dropped off, he then became the train which held up Alonso. Kimi and Alonso were only a few seconds apart when Alonso came out from his final stop. Without being held up, I’m sure he would have at least had track position coming out of the pits.
            1. 

               Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
               17th March 2013, 21:08

               Here’s a hot tip. It’s called motor racing, we’re if one comes across another car in front of one must use skill and speed to pass that car. If one cannot get past that car the other car is NOT obliged to move out of the way and indicates your skill and speed is insufficient and you do not deserve to get past. Saying the Sutil ruined vet tells race is wrong and shows a complete misunderstanding of what racing actually means.
            2. 

               Mike (@mike)
               19th March 2013, 2:46

               @theoddkiwi They are talking about why the 3 stop strategies didn’t work. Partly because they were stuck behind Sutil while their tyres were good.

               No one said anything about Sutil being at fault.
3. 

   safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
   17th March 2013, 15:29

   Bianchi the 11th fastest lap of the race. Only half a tenth slower than Vettel. Now that is impressive!
   1. 

      andae23 (@andae23)
      17th March 2013, 15:35

      Not as impressive as it sounds I guess: Vettel was saving his mediums at the time he was setting his fastest lap. Bianchi only had to do 6 laps on the supersoft tyres, so he was able to push. Combine that with a clear track on his first flyer and the result is a lap that probably looks more impressive than it actually is. Anyway, Bianchi’s lap times soon tumbled.
      1. 

         Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
         17th March 2013, 17:06

         For some 6 laps on the ss are a lifetime. Suspension geometry was never so evident as it is today, teams will have to find a compromise.
      2. 

         Velocityboy (@velocityboy)
         18th March 2013, 10:03

         Considering what Bianchi was driving and the time he’s had in the car, his lap time is still impressive.
   2. 

      Mark Salisbury
      18th March 2013, 12:42

      Bianchi’s times were impressive. Absolutely no doubt about it.
4. 

   Adam86
   17th March 2013, 15:45

   Comparing Hamilton to Vettel does show it was the length of first stint, and then attempt to fight Alonso which created most of the gap, rather than a general very weak race pace.
5. 

   Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
   17th March 2013, 15:57

   Red Bull may very well hold a clear advantage in qualifying but if that doesn’t translate into good race pace and the management they are just going to fall back. Malaysia will give a clearer picture though and Australia seemed pretty inconclusive, excerpt from the fact Massa is definitely back on form.
   1. 

      robfff
      17th March 2013, 18:02

      Yeah. Good to see he is back on form. He just needs the confidence to take advantage of opportunities and he will be able to compete with Alonso. He really lost out to his team mate because he made a poor call… thinking he could go a lot faster once in clean air, which never become reality.
      1. 

         Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
         17th March 2013, 18:54

         Hopefully that’s just purely a bad luck decision and he’ll maintain it, because it’s never good to see a driver get so convincingly thrashed by their teammate. Massa was the worst of anyone for that last year. If he does maintain that though, I’d stick my neck out and say Ferrari have the best driver line-up…
      2. 

         panache (@panache)
         17th March 2013, 21:25

         Ferrari intentionally sabotaged Massa. I don’t think it was Massa making a poor call. The teams have a huge amount of telemetry data on the cars, they are not in the dark by any stretch of the imagination.

         They KNEW that allowing Alonso to undercut Massa would compromise Massa’s race. It was blatantly obvious that Massa’s tyres would not last or allow him to lap quicker than his teammate who undercut him to pit for fresh tyres.

         The option to undercut a teammate when both are on essentially the same strategy and competing for the same position on track is usually advantageous, so if Massa was actually in a fair race with his teammate, Smedley or someone else should have informed Massa and allowed him the opportunity to pit first. That is of course unless Alonso used some dirty tactics and only announced his intention to pit as he was approaching the pit lane entry.
         1. 

            Eggry (@eggry)
            17th March 2013, 22:37

            I don’t think Massa made a poor call. It’s more about the Alonso’s risky call. Massa’s strategy was quite typical and logical but it didn’t offer any advantage over Vettel while Alonso’s was quite risky but it paid off. That’s it.
         2. 

            Brace (@brace)
            18th March 2013, 4:15

            If Ferrari or any other team are such experts in predicting when the tires will start to go off, why couldn’t Ferrari predict accurately for how long Alonso’s tires would last in Canada last year, since they already had bunch of races to get their info from?

            To suggest that they knew how much life Massa had in his tires in the first race of the season on new Pirellis is just your attempt to find an excuse where there is non.

            Alonso’s side simply decided to try to undercut the rivals, just like Maldonado did to Alonso in Barcelona last year. If Massa was to be sacrificed for Alonso, he would have pitted the very next lap, but that didn’t happen. They wanted to try to do a two-stop race, and that was perfectly sensible, since Ferrari was very good with its tires. Kimi made it work, so obviously Ferrari weren’t just making stupid unguided decision. It didn’t pay off for Massa this time, but it might pay off some other time.

            The one very positive thing I take from this race is that both Ferraris had ran in formation, in full speed at the front of the field and they obviously had more speed in pocket (since they managed to actually be slowed down behind Red Bull), which is a great news for me, as long as they maintain their advantage at the more standard race tracks and more common temperatures.
6. 

   Q85
   17th March 2013, 16:20

   i thought alonso jumped vettel and massa on the second stop. By quick thinking and stopping abit early.
   1. 

      caci99 (@)
      17th March 2013, 17:31

      Yes, it was the second round of stops @keithcollantine
7. 

   Paul2013
   17th March 2013, 16:24

   Today lotus should learn from the horrible performance of Romain G.
8. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   17th March 2013, 16:27

   A few things I noticed:

   Hamilton’s third stint was a disaster. He had to come in again after little more than 10 laps, and he was slower than Alonso whose tyres had done 10 laps more. His first stint, by contrast, was fantastic. He didn’t actually lose that much time since being passed by Raikkonen, and he could do 7 more laps than Vettel, with his lap times getting consistently faster towards the end of the stint. I expected this to bring him a useful advantage later in the race, either in terms of doing one stop less or by going faster in the following stints (or simply by being able to go quicker at the end of a stint), but he just couldn’t get the mediums to work, it seemed.

   There had been some talk of Massa being disadvantaged by Ferrari’s strategy, but I doubt he would have been able to challenge Vettel. He couldn’t produce the kinds of stints Alonso was doing, and in the last stint his tyres seemed to be going off quite badly. I was pleased he didn’t let Alonso through in the early laps, though. There was an onboard shot of Alonso getting alonside Massa on the back straight, and the commentators at RTL were like “Ok, Alonso is being let through now” – and the director seemed to think so as well because some other cars were shown before the pass was completed – but the next time they came into view Massa was still ahead.

   Vergne drove a strong race, and with the usual Melbourne attrition he would have gotten some points. Bianchi’s fastest lap is a little flattered as it was on super softs with low fuel, and he didn’t seem to make any attempt to conserve his tyres, but the rest of his race was pretty solid.

   Finally, an honourable mention to DiResta. A lot of people seem ready to write him off, but he’s actually performed pretty strongly this weekend. He outqualified his team mate, and drove two pretty consistent stints. Sutil got all the credit this weekend for his (admittedly superb) drive at the front, but without intervention from the team Paul might have finished ahead of him.
   1. 

      XR650
      17th March 2013, 19:17

      Di Resta deserves no praise. He was lucky to outqualify sutil. Sutil would have been miles ahead if the team bought him in for the supersofts in the last few laps. Di Resta shouldn’t have whined and felt p7 was stolen from him, he’s acting really arogant and has never shown any real potential in F1
      1. 

         mhop (@mhop)
         17th March 2013, 23:54

         “Sutil would have been miles ahead if the team bought him in for supersofts in the last few laps”. Yeah and if they’d given him a magic carpet he would have won the race at a canter.

         Listen, Sutil had to pit! He’d done 25 laps on his mediums and they were finished.
   2. 

      Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
      17th March 2013, 21:26

      Not so sure about your analysis of Hamiltons third stint. I believe he had tha gap to webber to do the stop without loosing position. His laps on the last stint where as good as anyone’s.

      Mercs first stint on the super softs was amazing 4 and 5 more laps on heavy fuel than anyone else. Button did three laps and pitted. Oh dear.
      1. 

         AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
         18th March 2013, 5:52

         @mike, that’s a possible explanation of why he came in so early, but then I would still have expected one or two quick laps before the stop, in case there was life left in the tyres, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
   3. 

      Mr draw
      17th March 2013, 22:37

      “John-Errick Virn” was very quick in qualifying and race, but unfortunately he couldn’t convert this speed into decent results. In the qualifying he gambled and lost, but what did hold him back in the race? Traffic?
   4. 

      Mike (@mike)
      18th March 2013, 3:27

      @adrianmorse

      Was that when Lewis locked up though?
      1. 

         AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
         18th March 2013, 5:50

         @mike, no, that his was his second stint, and his first on mediums.
         1. 

            Mike (@mike)
            19th March 2013, 2:17

            @adrianmorse Hmm, that is a problem for the team then, hopefully for him it isn’t the case next race.
9. 

   nickfrog (@nickfrog)
   17th March 2013, 16:33

   JEV did a good solid job indeed.
10. 

    petebaldwin (@)
    17th March 2013, 17:23

    So overall, it’s Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus who are quick out of the box although the Red Bull chews it tyres up more quickly than the rest.

    Mercedes are next followed by Force India. Then you’ve got McLaren who will surely move forward in the next few races and then you’ve got the rest….
    1. 

       Ben (@scuderia29)
       17th March 2013, 17:28

       potentially it could be quite a different running order in malaysia, melbourne is an unusual temporary track and very different layout to malaysia, also the weather could be very different in malaysia, i think only after the malaysian grand prix can we really say where everyone is in terms of pace
11. 

    dominion
    17th March 2013, 18:03

    Jenson did a 1.29.1 last year. Why don’t Clare go back to last years car?
    1. 

       Mike (@mike)
       18th March 2013, 3:28

       It can’t be that simple, but you have to wonder…
12. 

    Harry Westwood (@sirspuddington)
    17th March 2013, 18:06

    don’t forget, last season we saw a lot of cars being strong at some circuits and weak at others, or being sensitive to what temperature they’re operating at. There are so many contributing factors, that it may still be a few races before we find out who’s car can do well in more than one climate at more than one to five tracks. For all we know, this new mclaren could just be anti-street circuit. Who knows? No-one. The only thing we do know is that pirelli should have taken softs and mediums, because the SS tyres just fell apart too quickly. I mean, after little over 10 laps lewis’ tyres (SS) were worn down the the canvas. NOT MEANT TO HAPPEN
    1. 

       Jake (@jleigh)
       17th March 2013, 18:23

       Well Hamilton did 2 flying laps in quali, and an ever faster stint of 13 laps on full fuel. I would say that’s not bad. The Mediums were more of a trouble for him than the SS.
13. 

    mantresx (@mantresx)
    17th March 2013, 18:11

    How many fastest laps does Kimi have now? I think he’s the closest to Schumacher’s record.
    1. 

       Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
       17th March 2013, 19:49

       @mantresx
       Schumacher 77 (25.16%)
       Prost 41 (20.60%)
       Raikkonen 38 (21.59%)

       Still got quite a way to go! Beating Prost would still be a great achievement though.
    2. 

       montreal95 (@montreal95)
       17th March 2013, 19:58

       @mantresx Kimi has 38 an all-time 3rd. Prost is second on 41. Schumi has 76

       What’s crazy is that KR now has exactly twice the number of FL than the next active driver(Alonso-19), but exactly half of Schumi’s
       1. 

          montreal95 (@montreal95)
          17th March 2013, 20:03

          @mantresx I stand corrected Schumi has 77. Still 38-19 to Alonso is impressive
14. 

    Tomsk (@tomsk)
    17th March 2013, 18:15

    A classic waiting game by Raikkonen – it reminded me of Prost and Lauda in the McLarens, sitting back early on and not working the car too hard. He wasn’t all over the back of the guy in front (whereas Alonso was typically menacing at times), and on his first stop Kimi looked like he could have carried on, but was just covering Alonso’s stop (like Massa didn’t).

    Looking forward to seeing how the new combination of Raikkonen and Ciaran Pilbeam develops. I’ve no idea how much credit the race engineer deserves – after all, Kimi seems well able to make his own strategy calls. But if they can improve on last year’s missed opportunities, they’ll be dangerous.
    1. 

       Kimi4WDC
       17th March 2013, 23:04

       This, thanks mate.

       Kimi’s on demand sector times were pleasure to watch while others were grinding each other down.
15. 

    Palle (@palle)
    17th March 2013, 21:01

    Kimi was very impressive today, but Alonso also. The undercut on Vettel was brilliant and Vettel seemed to realize that he couldn’t strike back. Massa was a very good team mate for Alonso today, whereas Webber and Grosjean didn’t have a memorable day. Ferrari and Kimi seems very dangerous to Vettel this year, but the temperatures and conditions overall were special – As Alonso said lets see when we get to Europe. If Massa is really back on form for this season, he will take important points away from Alonso’s competitors. Webber needs to forget this race and move on. McLaren – hmm, they’ll be back I’m sure, but loosing Hamilton they don’t have a stable driver showing them the cars present state over the season. Button has his off-races and Sergio has his On-races, but none of them can be used to perfectly gauge if the car has improved or not. I don’t believe Mercedes has improved over last year, but lets see next race.
    1. 

       Murali Dharan
       17th March 2013, 22:08

       + 1
       McLaren need a good driver who can quickly setup his car. Now they are lost.
       1. 

          Nick (@nick101)
          18th March 2013, 11:23

          Yeah, I guess you are right. I mean, after all, Button only finished higher in the race than he started.

          Unlike Hamilton, the driving and setup God, who managed to lose 2 places during the race.
16. 

    timi (@timi)
    17th March 2013, 21:12

    Raikonnen, Alonso, and Hamilton’s lap times are very very similar. Bodes well for the rest of the season
17. 

    Matts_F1 (@ayrtons6094)
    18th March 2013, 6:34

    i think merc is a match to rbr in race pace..comparing seb’s and lewis’s lap times..

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