Kimi Raikkonen’s two-stop strategy was key to his victory in the Australian Grand Prix.
Only four other drivers finished the race with two pit stops, including the two Force India drivers, who also finished in the points.
However Ferrari were decisively the quickest team in the pits, with Felipe Massa enjoying the two quickest stops of the race. Their consistency was even more impressive – all six of their stops were quicker than last year’s record at this race, which they also set.
In total 13 pit stops were made by Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault which were quicker than last year’s fastest time of 21.91s.
Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (9) | Medium (25) | Medium (24) | |
Fernando Alonso | Super soft (9) | Medium (11) | Medium (19) | Medium (19) |
Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (7) | Medium (14) | Medium (16) | Medium (21) |
Felipe Massa | Super soft (8) | Medium (15) | Medium (13) | Medium (22) |
Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (13) | Medium (18) | Medium (11) | Medium (16) |
Mark Webber | Super soft (5) | Medium (13) | Medium (20) | Medium (20) |
Adrian Sutil | Medium (21) | Medium (25) | Super soft (12) | |
Paul di Resta | Super soft (8) | Medium (25) | Medium (25) | |
Jenson Button | Super soft (4) | Medium (16) | Medium (17) | Medium (21) |
Romain Grosjean | Super soft (5) | Medium (14) | Medium (18) | Medium (21) |
Sergio Perez | Medium (16) | Super soft (7) | Medium (18) | Medium (17) |
Jean-Eric Vergne | Super soft (9) | Medium (15) | Medium (20) | Medium (14) |
Esteban Gutierrez | Super soft (5) | Medium (22) | Medium (30) | |
Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (6) | Medium (18) | Medium (16) | Medium (17) |
Jules Bianchi | Super soft (9) | Medium (18) | Medium (23) | Super soft (7) |
Charles Pic | Super soft (8) | Medium (25) | Medium (23) | |
Max Chilton | Super soft (6) | Medium (13) | Medium (15) | Medium (22) |
Giedo van der Garde | Super soft (7) | Medium (9) | Medium (18) | Medium (22) |
Daniel Ricciardo | Medium (15) | Medium (15) | Super soft (9) | |
Nico Rosberg | Super soft (14) | Medium (12) | ||
Pastor Maldonado | Medium (10) | Medium (14) | ||
Nico Hulkenberg |
Australian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.509 | 36 | |
2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.511 | 0.002 | 23 |
3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 21.515 | 0.006 | 38 |
4 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 21.538 | 0.029 | 37 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.596 | 0.087 | 37 |
6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.606 | 0.097 | 20 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.704 | 0.195 | 39 |
8 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 21.705 | 0.196 | 41 |
9 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 21.717 | 0.208 | 18 |
10 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.754 | 0.245 | 8 |
11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.778 | 0.269 | 42 |
12 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.792 | 0.283 | 9 |
13 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.807 | 0.298 | 7 |
14 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 22.004 | 0.495 | 23 |
15 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.015 | 0.506 | 31 |
16 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.133 | 0.624 | 19 |
17 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.155 | 0.646 | 13 |
18 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 22.181 | 0.672 | 34 |
19 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.239 | 0.730 | 5 |
20 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.274 | 0.765 | 14 |
21 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.282 | 0.773 | 4 |
22 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 22.315 | 0.806 | 27 |
23 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 22.316 | 0.807 | 5 |
24 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.534 | 1.025 | 37 |
25 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 22.669 | 1.160 | 50 |
26 | Adrian Sutil | Force India | 22.693 | 1.184 | 21 |
27 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 22.704 | 1.195 | 21 |
28 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 22.709 | 1.200 | 9 |
29 | Adrian Sutil | Force India | 22.749 | 1.240 | 46 |
30 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 22.948 | 1.439 | 34 |
31 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 23.010 | 1.501 | 8 |
32 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 23.051 | 1.542 | 33 |
33 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.074 | 1.565 | 9 |
34 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 23.099 | 1.590 | 10 |
35 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.160 | 1.651 | 44 |
36 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.215 | 1.706 | 24 |
37 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 23.371 | 1.862 | 9 |
38 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 23.387 | 1.878 | 27 |
39 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 23.394 | 1.885 | 8 |
40 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 23.435 | 1.926 | 15 |
41 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 23.509 | 2.000 | 33 |
42 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.528 | 2.019 | 6 |
43 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 23.571 | 2.062 | 20 |
44 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 23.677 | 2.168 | 16 |
45 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 23.834 | 2.325 | 16 |
46 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 23.917 | 2.408 | 34 |
47 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 24.060 | 2.551 | 40 |
48 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 24.104 | 2.595 | 7 |
49 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 24.177 | 2.668 | 30 |
50 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 24.240 | 2.731 | 5 |
51 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 24.688 | 3.179 | 24 |
52 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 30.838 | 9.329 | 19 |
53 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 36.564 | 15.055 | 6 |
Eggry (@eggry)
17th March 2013, 12:23
Data shows Ferrari, Red Bull, Mclaren are all fast and reliable pit stoppers.
zippyone (@zippyone)
17th March 2013, 12:32
except Red Bull messed up Mark’s stop. Ferrari win this time.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
18th March 2013, 7:28
Even McLaren. Look at no. 43 and 44
Timo (@timo)
17th March 2013, 12:36
Encouraging for the Mercs with Lewis and Nico going 13 and 14 laps in on the super softs. It looked as though the plan was for 2 stops. I can’t recall during the race if Lewis reported the tyres going off in the second stint during the race. Ultimately, the 2 stop might’ve been better for Lewis. It would have been interesting to see whether Nico went the same way.
Kimi looks pretty strong in the Lotus; it’s quick and soft on the tyres – he still had decent life in the tyres at the end, setting the fastest lap 2 or 3 from the end, and on 20 odd lap old tyres.
Few posts saying FI made the wrong strategy calls. Not sure about that; I think they finished higher up the order than they otherwise would have based on their race pace. The poor return Sutil got on the supersofts was a bit surprising in terms of how quickly they went off.
Jake (@jleigh)
17th March 2013, 12:54
What I think would have been really interesting was if Nico would have been able to keep Alonso behind him for a while had he not retired, and wether this would have helped Lewis conserve his tyres longer in his second stint, making the planned 2 stop possible.
I’m hoping Mercedes lack of ability to get a decent stint on the mediums was due to a lack of long run in FP2 and the strange climactic conditions, rather than an inherent tyre wear problem. Their stints on the super soft was a positive sign.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2013, 13:00
Yes @timo, Hamilton commented that the tyres were not going to last the 27 laps he needed.
Timo (@timo)
18th March 2013, 3:15
Ah cheers, I also forgot about his major lock up in I think T13 when he was being pressed by Alonso, no doubt significant flat-spotting occurred there.
Mike (@mike)
17th March 2013, 14:20
@timo I think that Force India expected Sutil’s tyres to last much longer. Otherwise the logical call would have been to pit him later.
rancho
18th March 2013, 10:18
sutil’s super-soft tyres didn’t go off, they grained terribly on the first few laps after his pitstop likely because of the ambient temperature. the tyres came back to him and he finished the last few laps with better pace, but he lost up to 8 seconds a lap on the first couple.
Gill (@gill)
17th March 2013, 12:44
If you see the tyre strategy, the key was Adrian Sutil who held Vettel and 2 Ferraris. If Fernando/ Felipe was leading this race, Kimi could not have won this race. The key was 11 laps (only ) by Alonso in his 2nd stint. But no complaints, Ferrari is fast , felipe proved that and Alonso was flying when he was catching Sutil. His 1:29.6 lap at that time was incredible, even better than Kimi’s fastest lap which he set when fuel tank was empty.:)
firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
17th March 2013, 16:43
@gill We don’t know what is the pace of the Lotus when the drivers don’t drive to conserve their tyres. In this race, they choosed a 2 pit strategy. If they would have choosed 3 pit strat., then they would have been more fast.
sss
17th March 2013, 12:45
The strategy(to be less aggresive with tyres) helped Raikkonen a lot(he made his own luck, to be fare), but I think in Malaysia the conservative tyres strategy won’t stand, because, there, you can overtake more easily. I think, there we will see who has the fastest car(in race and qualy of course). Plus, I think Merc. will be fast there because they have a kind of ‘adaptive suspension’ and this helps you if the track has multiple corners with big difference in height.
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
18th March 2013, 15:35
So… Merc has something on their car that changes ride-height on the fly? Isn’t that illegal?
wigster (@wigster)
17th March 2013, 12:56
It’s a pity Rosberg retired as he and Hamilton appeared to have a similar race pace and it would have been interesting to see if they could have got to the end on a two stopper. Apparently Hamilton flat spotted his tyres just before he converted to a 3 stop race, and if he’d managed to stay out another couple of laps I think a 2 stop strategy would have worked, and perhaps Hamilton could have finished in front of Massa.
Mike (@mike)
17th March 2013, 14:28
Yeah, I half heard that over the PA, apparently he ripped through his tyre so much that you could see the Canvas!
sato113 (@sato113)
17th March 2013, 15:54
good to see 2-3 stop races back again.
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
17th March 2013, 17:17
+1
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
18th March 2013, 15:40
I disagree very much. I remember listening to the commentators during the race, and all they were talking about the entire time was pit stops and tires. That’s not normal, and it’s not racing. It’s amazing how much good publicity Pirelli has accumulated from making ****** tires.
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
17th March 2013, 17:16
Clearly Kimi is a much better and sensible drive in these conditions than Alonso, or the other guys at the top. Dude managed his tyres very well. Hamilton could have done it too but lost it in the second stint.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
17th March 2013, 18:22
And now people are coming into conclusions after a good strategy that worked due to the fact that the guys in front were held up by Sutil
We will see how much sensitive he is in the next race
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
17th March 2013, 19:45
@tifoso1989
So here I am hanging out with the Kimi boo boys… I don’t really care what you will see, guys held up by slow cars often happen in F1, noob, what is this your first year?
Murali Dharan
17th March 2013, 22:30
yeah, when the car in front is as fast as the car in the back then that does not constitute to holding the train.
Sutil was committed to the 2 stopper pretty early on, so if he was banging in competitive laptimes vs the Ferraris and RBRs in new tires then it is some problem with the cars behind.
Kimi4WDC
18th March 2013, 4:54
Because Kimi wasn’t held up by Ferraris? Did you think about why he kept gap to cars in front to about 2 seconds unlike everybody else and did not push his tyres when he got out of the pit?
He literally out played them, will be hard to repeat, but he will manage he is Ferrari’s last Worl Champion after all!!!!
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
18th March 2013, 15:42
Hamilton didn’t make it because he pooped his pants when he was being passed by Alonso and locked up his tires.
Merv (@)
17th March 2013, 18:54
Which cars were Renault servicing?
Ben (@scuderia29)
17th March 2013, 19:33
i think its meant to say Lotus, i often still call that team renault
Merv (@)
17th March 2013, 19:35
It was a little tongue in cheek ;)
Been a while now lol.
mie (@jaimeabraham36)
18th March 2013, 2:20
How Marussia pitstop faster than Williams? Williams crew is too fat!