2012 Australian Grand Prix result

2012 Australian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Jenson Button won the opening race of 2012 ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Their team mates occupied the next two positions with Fernando Alonso fifth for Ferrari.

Pastor Maldonado crashed out of sixth place on the final lap. Behind him, a frenzied exchange of positions left Kimi Raikkonen seventh ahead of Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Paul di Resta.

Pos#DriverCarLapsGapDifferenceReason
13Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes58
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault582.1392.139
34Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes584.0751.936
42Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault584.5470.472
55Fernando AlonsoFerrari5821.56517.018
614Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari5836.76615.201
79Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault5838.0141.248
815Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari5839.4581.444
916Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari5839.5560.098
1011Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes5839.7370.181
1117Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari5839.8480.111
128Nico RosbergMercedes5857.64217.794
1318Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault571 lap1 lap
1424Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth571 lap116.965
1525Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth535 laps4 laps
1619Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault526 laps1 lap
Not classified
6Felipe MassaFerrari4612 laps6 lapsAccident
20Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault3820 laps8 lapsSuspension
21Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault3424 laps4 lapsSteering
7Michael SchumacherMercedes1048 laps24 lapsGearbox
10Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault157 laps9 lapsAccident
12Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes058 laps1 lapSuspension

2012 Australian Grand Prix


    Browse all 2012 Australian Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    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...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    54 comments on “2012 Australian Grand Prix result”

    1. What, all this talk about changes and the top 5 is basically “last year”? :)

      1. It’s funny, isn’t it?

        Still, behind Vettel’s determined charge and Jenson’s flawless first-to-last victory, there was a lot of encouragement for future races.

        Grosjean qualified in 3rd and Kimi went from near the back to finish 7th. Lotus has real pace.

        Schumacher has remembered how to qualify and the Mercedes seems properly fast in his hands. It’s a pity that Mercedes put Rosberg on the wrong tyre, but he’ll come back stronger in Malaysia.

        Maldonado surely put in Williams’ most encouraging performance in an age. And meanwhile Kamui for Sauber was ‘best of the rest,’ and he’s always good fun to have in the mix of things.

        I think we’d get very long odds on the same top five next time. I’m so excited!

        1. Crazy last lap for final points! Less than half a second between 4 cars!!!

    2. Great drive from Perez, 8th place from last on the grid and so happy to see Kimi fight through and get in the top 10 too.

    3. i think Lewis Hamilton must be annoyed wtih how the race went on for him.

      1. A few things went against him today, the start, the safety car and the pit stops, but it could be better next week!

        1. The good thing is Hamilton didn’t make any attempt to block Button at the start. If it was someone like Vettel on pole, Button would have found himself on the grass..

          Something that I keep talking about though, Mclaren could have brought Lewis earlier for his second stop which would have guaranteed a one two, but it seems they didn’t like the idea of Hamilton running close to Button. But the past two seasons, when Button is behind, they make use of the undercut to get him closer to the front.

          1. Hamilton was 4, 5 secs off Button…. i doubt he would have been anywhere close to him… + Button was not only in front but also the leading driver.. and they were on the same pit stop strategy… the policy is clear in such situations.. would Hamilton have been out front he would have pitted first…(for example see Hungary 2011)…. why punish Button because of Hamilton’s inability to keep his tyres alive long enough?…. but of course logic is not important because Lewis was robbed of a win by the team, or whatever….. omg how dare the team put him in a position where he has to overtake for P2?! Absolutely scandalous!*rolling eyes* …..let’s not even mention the restart….
            Seriously, i don´t get it.. I try to be not bothered by ignorant people but this is even painful to read… would it be so hard just to admit the Hamilton lacked the pace and pretty much everything else today? Or not say anything at all?…

            1. Button was way faster than hamilton. Funny to read comments about how hamilton was the. J tim ‘ cause he wasn’t. He is the one that had the bad start, he was slower than button on race pace and couln’t pass vettel after the sc.

            2. You are getting carried away with yourself. The comment is not about Hamilton Vs Button, but Hamilton vs the other teams.

              mclare could have got a one two.

            3. Button was 3.5 seconds in-frond.

      2. I don’t know, I think Hamilton is a bit of a baby with the long face after the race.

    4. I feel so gutted for Maldonado! Such a shame from such a well fought for position.

      Good to see the whole field so tight though, set for a thriller of a season!

      1. Absolutely brilliant to see Williams competitive again.
        I thought Maldonado was unlucky to lose the car. He was having a go, I can respect that.
        But it looked a bit like he rammed Grosjean off.
        Hmmm

    5. Great drive by Button and Mclare.
      They did miss the opportunity of getting a 1-2.

    6. So happy for Button, Vettel and especially for KIMI! What a comeback race that was!

      1. And a good lesson for the hepta… Look at him to learn how to get back in a F1 car!

    7. That was Hamilton’s to win and he was totally outclassed by his team mate, it will be a hard one to take, but he has Malaysia to look forward to, a race he hasn’t won so the incentive to win a new trophy to add to the collection as well as proving he can beat Button will get him fired up for it.

      As for Ferrari, we’ve seen poor cars go well at Australia before – the BMW 2009 was on for a podium finish before it crashed with less than 5 laps to go, and the Mclaren 2009 finished 3rd on the track (it was later disqualified) – but both of these cars were found out proper circuits which are more aero dependant. Next week could be a more stressful one for Ferrari.

      1. Wouldnt exactly say he was out classed, the race was decided before turn one, Hamilton had a bad start, it happens.

        McLaren admitted both cars were basically in fuel save mode from lap 8.

        Then Hamilton being passed by Vettel was just sheer bad luck, no one could have predicted pitting him when they did would have the adverse effect it had.

    8. Hamilton doesn’t look happy, Looks like he doesn’t want to celebrate?
      He didn’t even really want to talk in the press conference, answered the questions in as few words as possible & in the most downbeat way possible?

      drs once again produced a significant number of stupidly easy passes, worldfeed did not pick them all up but sky’s onboard feeds picked up a lot of them. this stupid system really does need to be banned, or at least the regs changed so the lead car can defend.
      once again all the best racing, most exciting racing & best, most exciting overtakes were done well outside drs zones.

      1. Didnt see any EASY overtakes from the top placed cars? Actually most overtakes from the guys in the top 10 seemed to come outside the DRS zone becase the car in front (like Rosberg) would defend with KERS. I think you will find the easy passes at Albert Park are a combination of tyres, KERS and DRS.

      2. I am not really surprised. He had second place before vettel got lucky with the safety car (it could not have been timed better if it had been planned!) Not even sure that Petrovs car was in a particularly dangerous place….

    9. Good race. Great drive by Button. Conclusions :

      Mclaren and Red Bull quite even but maybe Mclaren with the slight edge over the whole weekend. Vettel, lucky again with incidents in a race going for him. Great drive by Alonso. Mercedes maybe not quite as good as we thought, race pace not too good. Great race.

    10. No wonder, the first pit stop was way too late and the performance of Button’s car was also much better, as if it was another car when theoretically is the same.

    11. Hamilton doesnt have many reasons to be very happy. especially given how things were shaping up for him yesterday. Button has shown that he is very serious about this one and he’s performed brilliantly. The Red Bulls will be again on top at malaysia I reckon.
      Great to see Schumacher up there before the gear box issue. The Mercedes look good and its a shame they didnt make it count. Alonso is just amazing again getting 110% out of the Ferrari

    12. As a Sauber fan, it is truly great to see Kobayashi and Perez finish strongly.

    13. only managed to catch the race on the iPhone timing app, was Maldonado’s mistake his own or his car’s???

      1. @shomir It was his own fault, he spun coming out of a corner.

    14. I was disappointed to see Maldonado retire. He really showed his full potential today; I would have loved to see him pass Alonso, or at least finish as he did and score more points in one race than Williams did for all of 2011.

      At the same time, I was also disappointed for Marussia. Glock was a lap down when Maldonado crashed, so Maldonado was classified ahead of him. If Glock had been on the lead lap, Marussia would have finished 13th, their best result and and important step in securing a good Constructors’ position. 13th place was the best both Caterham and HRT managed last year, so a lot of the squabble over the tenth in the final standings could come down to who finished where and when.

      1. Maldonado has only himself to blame but I felt bad for Williams. They feild is competitive it may get more difficult to be so high up as the season progresses.

        1. It was his fault, yes but like @prisoner-monkeys I’m disappointed. He showed such great pace and a willingness to fight. After last season you can’t blame him for wanting to challenge when he seems to have a car capable of doing so.

          1. I feel pretty much the same as you do, @andrewtanner and @prisoner-monkeys, the good part is that Williams seem to have a car that could well be capable of replicating the result.
            As for Marussia, I guess it really goes to show how much of a difference a world class simulator can make for a team, because they were very good prepared setup-wise to get the maximum out of the car right from the start.

      2. I agree i dont understand how a car that is not capable of finishing its remaining laps can be classified ahead of a car that can finish????

        Surely Maldonado should be classified as a DNF?

        1. If you make it past 90% of the race distance, you will be classified regardless of whether you retire or not (unless you’re disqualified). Maldonado crashed on the final lap, Glock was a lap down when the race finished and therefore didn’t get to complete the final lap. This meant that Maldonado completed more of the race distance than Glock, therefore Maldonado was classified ahead of Glock.

    15. Williams’ FW34 is definitely a good car, but the drivers today have thrown away a lot of points.
      It’s a shame, but it was quite predictable with two almost-rookies.

      1. Rubens would have brought home the car in the points………oh well.

        1. Rubens would have brought the car home out of the points ;)

    16. A nice result. A few genuine surprises and a few disappointments with the retirements.

      Things certainly look very competitive.

    17. ++
      Marussia
      Williams
      Lotus
      Perez
      Kobayashi
      Button
      Vettel
      Kimi


      Ferrari
      Massa
      Senna
      Caterham
      Hamilton

      Season looking good!

      1. I agree the season looks like it’s going to be a beauty

        Force India looked to be a couple seconds off the pace for the entire race.
        They were lucky to get a point. But they will have to spice the car up.
        Vergne drove a good rooky race. I thought he deserved the last point.

        What is going on with Massa???
        Alonso is a hard worker. His boss must be happy with him. I don’t think he is very happy with anybody else though.

    18. It didn’t take Massa long to find a new play mate.

      1. Cant help but laugh……poor Massa.

    19. If hamilton was able to get a good start, i reckon he could have gone on and won it as his pace for most of the time was on par with Buttons. He should take solace in that and just count himself abit unfortunate during the race. I reckon this year will be much like 2010 where everyone was taking points off each other. I could be wrong, Button could simply sooth his way to a second championship, but that i believe is unlikely.

    20. I have a question regarding the race result, especially regarding the Marussias:

      Why did Glock not cross the line in 13th position?

      I expected him to relap himself in comparison to Maldonado. Honestly, I did not follow him throughout the hole race. I saw Pic turning into Pitlane moments before Button crossed the line for finishing 1st, and of course I saw both Marussias in the relapping process during SC. But considering that the SC phase was not a long time ago (~17 laps), guessing he was 4 seconds per lap slower than Maldonado, he should not have been lapped again by him (calculated time dif ~68secs). A 13th position would have been even more valuable than 14th, comparing to what HRT did in Canada last year. Furthermore, his last sector of his last lap was very poor (43.4secs) but not as bad as Rosbergs (60.4secs).

      And it leads to another question:
      If a car is multiple times lapped by the leader, how many times is the driver allowed to pass by the entire field during SC? Just once? I might have to look into the regulations regarding this.

      1. *edit: “whole race” instead of “hole race” …

    21. Webber finally improves his best result at his home race!
      I was really astonished by Maldonado (perhaps too brave at times), but in the end I tought: “he’ll do something silly now” (thinking he’d try an overtake and crash into Alonso), then I saw his car and thought he’d done what Coulthard did to Wurz in 2007. It turned up he was very unlucky, which makes me sad.
      The final lap was mad – I’m sad Perez couldn’t finish 7th with a one-stop strategy (which would have repaid him of last year) but I’m happy Raikkonen had a good result and that Ricciardo reached the top 10, although I’d have preferred Vergne ahead of di Resta as I felt he had been better.

    22. Pic retired? It wasn’t shown (or I missed it)!
      Also, I’m disappointed FOM didn’t show us why Hulkenberg retired and an on board from Massa/Senna of their crash.

      1. He did not really retire, it looked liked they put him in because he was 4-5 laps behind without chance of gaining positions, so he kind of finished in the box, because they did that when Button was on his last meters…

        I guess they did that to spare him the victory lap, so one lap less run-time, plus some parc fermé advantages.

    23. Looks like you need to change the teams for drivers!

    24. MISTAKE:
      Kamui Kobayashi doesn’t drive for Force India-Mercedes

    25. MISTAKE:
      Kamui Kobayashi and Perez aren’t driving for Force India-Mercedes

    26. Matt (@fluxocillin7)
      18th March 2012, 16:29

      As a non Sky TV subscriber, I’d be interested in a break down of what the BBC folk missed out on getting only highlights… stuff was missing obviously but it wasn’t ‘that’ bad…

      For interview priority / grid walk today the BBC seemed to be way down the pecking order rather than top, and consequently commanded much less – presumably much done in good faith from past years? – It will be interesting at the live races whether BBC give the “usual coverage”… perhaps an interesting editorial if anyone has watched both?

      On a side note maybe Sky has missed the big trick here, perhaps they should have aired the first race free as an example to their self proclaimed “excellent” coverage? Obviously we can all tell it is less coverage than last year, but in no way was it bad enough to warrant buying a Sky subscription for a minimum of £363 for F1 HD. Especially considering I have no feeling for what would be better.

      It’s actually cheaper to go to a couple of the races we’ll be missing, which would be much more fun! (Spa + Silverstone look like a better expense than Sky TV).

      1. Just finished watching the BBC highlights after seeing it live on Sky. I don’t think you missed much to be honest. I’ll give Malaysia a go and if Sky aren’t better I’m not going to continue with the sports package. The BBC seemed to actually have more post race analysis in the half hour at the end than in more than an hour on Sky (a lot of which was adverts and pointless montages). The best thing about seeing it on Sky was being able to follow it with F1Fanatic Live at the same time. Save your money – go to Spa!!

    27. I was really really impressed with Pastor. Whilst watching i kept thinking hes going to make a mistake but he kept going and was all over the back of Alonso which was literally making me sweat ! It was awesome. He made a small mistake and it was a small one as he didnt run that wide. He was unlucky in my view. I screamed when i saw the onboard camera come up and the first thing i noticed was the number 18 ! After calming down i say well done Pastor on actually giving me some excitement for the first time in a while from a Williams Car !

    Comments are closed.