How Hamilton rebuffed Rosberg in the final laps

2015 Australian Grand Prix lap charts

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[interactivecharts]Nico Rosberg made at least two attempts to wrest the lead from Lewis Hamilton in the Australian Grand Prix. But his team mate never let him get within range.

Australian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58
Lewis Hamilton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13.415 0.859 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nico Rosberg 0.599 1.234 2.379 2.682 2.368 2.602 2.163 1.61 1.271 1.713 1.931 2.192 2.089 2.488 2.354 2.506 2.409 2.305 2.425 2.939 3.545 3.702 3.825 0 0 4.672 3.523 2.807 2.556 2.489 2.273 2.058 1.968 1.748 1.541 1.637 2.076 2.433 2.406 2.459 1.97 1.688 2.238 2.24 2.382 1.825 1.933 2.051 2.49 2.129 1.565 1.545 1.683 1.697 2.07 1.859 1.36
Felipe Massa 1.538 2.189 3.846 5.009 5.794 6.406 7.083 7.362 7.505 7.934 8.986 9.85 10.171 10.511 11.3 12.311 13.094 13.942 14.777 34.398 40.94 42.704 41.851 37.104 18.116 17.295 17.274 17.568 18.473 19.552 20.412 21.313 21.099 21.716 22.761 23.54 24.85 26.552 27.503 28.903 29.279 29.879 30.277 30.995 32.091 32.515 33.093 34.001 34.775 34.83 34.445 35.026 35.537 36.123 36.883 37.483 38.196
Sebastian Vettel 2.598 2.659 4.527 5.789 6.542 7.146 8.001 8.059 8.222 8.97 10.135 11.157 11.498 12.174 12.889 13.97 14.654 15.475 16.314 17.233 17.135 17.008 35.346 36.1 16.647 15.196 14.625 14.233 14.746 15.768 16.258 16.683 16.468 17.106 18.111 19.053 20.437 22.958 23.777 25.103 25.774 26.362 27.003 28.062 28.939 29.549 30.362 31.466 32.275 32.049 31.264 31.048 31.622 31.983 32.468 32.785 34.523
Kimi Raikkonen 6.777 4.248 7.985 10.291 12.29 13.823 15.188 16.494 17.805 19.124 20.691 22.098 23.647 24.956 50.098 57.165 56.663 57.558 57.364 57.433 57.222 56.766 57.856 52.389 33.702 31.503 30.214 29.443 29.023 29.294 28.864 28.992 28.92 29.079 28.943 29.126 29.751 30.853 50.082
Daniel Ricciardo 5.322 3.659 6.841 9.168 11.293 13.12 14.731 16.011 17.336 18.631 20.228 21.728 23.049 24.501 26.125 28.317 30.818 32.927 34.909 37.657 39.901 60.91 67.796 63.843 46.036 45.699 46.032 46.31 47.244 48.775 49.961 51.214 51.31 52.32 53.821 55.241 57.007 59.03 60.377 62.033 63.081 64.585 66.269 69.655 71.275 72.879 75.676 78.664 80.84 82.726 83.708 85.332 87.401 89.977 97.218 102.394
Carlos Sainz Jnr 3.471 3.27 7.439 9.869 11.741 14.565 16.058 17.729 19.168 21.014 23.143 25.498 27.205 28.736 30.512 32.677 34.737 36.622 39.012 41.372 43.766 45.908 99.957 102.783 84.441 83.642 83.863 85.106 86.667 88.697 90.817 95.728 98.161 101.806 106.072 110.277 114.924 118.002 122.448 124.645 126.091 128.521 130.357 132.587 135.279 137.2 139.205 141.054 143.133 144.403 145.807 147.548 151.252 153.26 156.341 160.269
Romain Grosjean
Pastor Maldonado
Felipe Nasr 4.744 3.323 6.114 8.497 10.573 12.243 13.849 15.246 16.499 17.702 19.317 21.037 22.184 23.392 24.53 25.931 27.319 28.717 30.529 32.837 34.154 35.627 36.793 53.819 43.087 41.973 41.663 42.215 43.669 45.459 47.091 48.601 48.764 50.656 52.529 54.236 56.121 58.342 59.644 61.036 61.909 63.273 64.638 66.849 68.284 69.267 71.056 73.221 76.042 78.157 79.712 82.057 83.799 85.229 87.607 90.164 95.149
Max Verstappen 7.658 4.618 8.907 11.877 14.562 17.009 19.279 21.067 23.313 25.697 28.294 30.391 32.392 34.197 36.178 38.331 40.404 42.899 45.283 47.889 50.125 51.811 53.368 50.384 33.533 34.749 36.171 37.876 40.166 43.319 65.476
Nico Hulkenberg 8.891 5.077 9.575 12.754 15.383 17.954 20.482 22.457 24.603 26.888 29.177 31.458 33.245 35.183 37.459 40.076 42.324 44.792 47.473 68.301 75.38 76.11 77.042 73.656 56.696 57.133 58.277 59.868 62.229 64.84 67.102 69.239 70.444 72.208 74.809 77.164 80.01 82.815 84.946 87.962 90.112 96.071 115.737 125.365 126.428 127.052 127.798 128.75 129.876 130.478 131.352 132.375 133.623 135.215 136.898 138.828
Sergio Perez 9.481 5.712 12.372 16.833 21.115 27.085 29.596 32.759 36.022 39.081 44.054 47.795 58.208 60.66 63.582 67.091 70.024 73.48 76.391 80.136 83.394 85.848 88.706 86.359 70.503 72.972 76.423 79.462 82.547 85.917 89.639 94.43 97.782 101.551 105.806 109.163 138.438 146.625 146.795 147.473 148.043 149.703 150.369 151.414 152.196 152.672 153.783 154.972 156.723 157.479 158.185 159.869 161.856 164.222 168.974 172.571
Marcus Ericsson 11.247 6.746 11.679 15.573 17.636 19.798 21.576 23.56 25.684 27.787 29.932 32.091 34.286 36.293 38.563 41.101 43.008 45.402 48.102 51.298 53.53 55.936 59.066 58.246 65.4 73.134 73.617 74.357 76.218 77.995 79.3 80.888 81.14 83.17 85.723 88.05 91.118 96.108 98.395 101.833 103.912 132.921 142.045 142.917 143.34 143.672 144.379 145.267 146.049 145.805 146.284 148.189 150.28 151.391 152.888 153.631
Jenson Button 10.371 6.187 11.265 16.312 20.088 23.522 27.297 30.742 34.756 38.432 43.36 47.056 51.568 55.067 58.852 63.032 66.565 70.381 74.213 78.466 82.278 85.13 87.774 85.433 69.71 91.661 99.962 102.102 104.995 109.245 114.239 118.298 122.188 125.613 128.944 132.554 136.365 140.29 143.325 147.002 151.103 155.037 161.708 165.893 169.242 172.32 175.608 179.752 186.687 190.687 194.133 197.967 202.038 204.92 207.265

As the graph above shows, Rosberg made at least two serious attempts to close down Hamilton’s lead in the second half of the race, beginning on laps 41 and 50. But each time one he got to within a second and a half of his team mate – almost within DRS range – Hamilton responded by pulling clear.

“The attack was most definitely there,” Rosberg insisted after the race when it was suggested to him that he never seemed able to put Hamilton under pressure. “Maybe you didn’t see it but it was there, for sure, inside the cockpit.”

“But Lewis made no mistakes so it was just not possible to get closer than that, let alone try some of attempt to overtake.”

Rosberg was cautious with his fuel use early in the race as he tried to save enough for a late attack on his team mate. But he suspected Hamilton was alert to the threat.

“It was just a matter of saving a little bit of fuel in the middle of the race to then be able to go full on at the end of the race but I think Lewis did a similar thing,” said Rosberg. “As soon as I started to save a little bit he saved as well, so he could push, so it didn’t really help me unfortunately.”

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Australian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58
Lewis Hamilton 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Nico Rosberg 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Felipe Massa 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Sebastian Vettel 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Kimi Raikkonen 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 9 7 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Daniel Ricciardo 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 10 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Carlos Sainz Jnr 5 5 5 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9
Romain Grosjean
Pastor Maldonado
Felipe Nasr 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Max Verstappen 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 6 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 8
Nico Hulkenberg 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 11 11 11 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Sergio Perez 11 11 11 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 10 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 10 12 12 12 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Marcus Ericsson 13 13 13 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 8 8 8 10 11 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8
Jenson Button 12 12 12 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

2015 Australian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “How Hamilton rebuffed Rosberg in the final laps”

  1. Kimi had the pace to put under pressure Hamilton and Rosberg! Check his gap when he had no traffic, in the second stint.

    His race was jeopardized by the turn 1 incident, alas.

    1. Two stop strategy, so he went harder on his tires than everyone else.

    2. @a4p He was the only driver who went option/option/prime. Well, that was the plan. Fifth was most likely his place today.

    3. During that stint Kimi was on the softs while everyone else (except for Ericsson) was on the mediums, he was on a 2 stop strategy compared to the drivers ahead who all one stopped, so you would expect him to be fast at that point in the race.

      1. And the guys on mediums were saving it to go to the end, whereas Raikkonen was just flat on the gas.

        And still, he wasn’t clearly faster than Hamilton. The pace was pretty much the same.

        This W06 is a beast. I can’t wait to see what kind of domination they’ll have on Spain.

    4. pastaman (@)
      15th March 2015, 21:48

      Yeah, you are assuming he could have kept up that pace on soft tires. So no.

    5. Don’t fool yourself…the Mercs are in their own galaxy, Ferrari can only hope to be the 2nd best constructor in 2015.

  2. On the graph.

    1.- Select None
    2.- Tick Hamilton and Button
    3.- Cry

    He consistently lost 4 seconds a lap.

    1. @fer-no65 True, but I think they turned it up near the end and were only 2.4 seconds per lap slower (last lap)… that at least puts them fighting with guys like Perez on pure pace from now on (as we saw in the race, heh). Maybe in China or Spain they can turn it up to full..

    2. Wow Button has such consistent loss! His line is nearly perfect. Throw in Massa to see where McLaren has to go to meet Williams.
      I pushed Grosjean and Maldonado but nothing happened… Weird

      1. Not so weird as they were both out at the start of the race.

    3. Best comment of the year so far!

  3. Graham (@guitargraham)
    15th March 2015, 16:18

    hamilton teased rosberg the same way you’d tease a cat with a piece of string. its actually one of the best examples of gap management ive ever seen

    1. But Rosberg was breathing better.

      1. LOL. Rosberg…breathing better in the race…hyperventilating into a bag after the race. Lewis is probably just a bit too talented for Nico, and without failure of Hamilton’s Merc, Nico’s battle against his teammate will always be an uphill one.

  4. I think Hamilton knew he could just keep Rosberg out of reach whenever he liked so he just used the race as one big test session on how to manage the fuel & tyres, which even after so much work in off season for Rosberg he still can’t manage to match Hamilton on fuel consumption, the fact that even Mr Brundle had to eat some humble pie on last season as he had constantly repeated that Rosberg would be better and managing both tyres and fuel, turned out to be wrong on both fronts. Rosberg is saying all the right politically correct things off the track but on the track, where the talking really matters he isn’t doing so well. Early days though yet, Let’s see how that develops.

    I rated the race itself 5/10, I was happy Lewis won and has shown he is so focused, despite some of the media attempts to show differently throughout the weekend and even my own concerns of how emotionally stable he would be but he has put an end to those speculations, but the lack on runners made the race itself to be quite flat. I don’t need it to be a battle for the lead to be a great race, as long as there is battles on the grid, and I think once some of injuries and reliability issues, not to mention team mistakes have been sorted out I think this season will be a great season to watch. Seeing Red Bull fight mid field should be interesting as well, Although I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of good old Horner talking about how poor Renault are and how the FIA should be changing the rules. He moans more than teams on the back of the grid living on the breadline. Put up or shut up Red Bull & Renault. Deal with your problems and stop blaming the rules for your own failures…As it’s quite clear that you can make significant gains inside the current rules. It is ironic though that Renault were one of the OEM’s to threaten to leave F1 if they didn’t go to 1.6 V6’s, which could turn out to be the very reason they may leave F1 if their woes continue.

    1. And prior to the pit stops the gap between them was the biggest of the race.

    2. He knew nothing. They were racing like McLaren in 1998 – just were finishing the race from lap 1 with maintained order.

      1. And I suppose the team also told Rosberg to slide along the wall at one point just to make it look like he was really trying to push?

        1. Just like back in 1998. David had a point. But was told to keep stay behind.

          1. I really don’t know how to respond to such a silly comment.

    3. @woodyd91: First the Red Bull team needs to stop being eclipsed by Toro Rosso… same engine, less experienced drivers, far smaller budget, yet faster.
      Of course, it’s only race one. Too early to say, definitely too early for Mr Horner to be crying in his coffee. Won’t stop him of course.

      1. Yep, I fear this season will be dominated by Mr Horner and his tears.

  5. I know this is the first race, but I just expect more fighting from Rosberg. When you start attacking you DO attack and don´t back off, put the guy in front in REALLY HARD pressure. At least learn something with Hamilton.

  6. Lap chart does not appear on Google Chrome. Works fine with Microsoft IE.

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