2016 Australian Grand Prix result

2016 Australian Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsTime/gapDifferenceReason
16Nico RosbergMercedes571hr 48m 15.565s
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes578.0608.060
35Sebastian VettelFerrari579.6431.583
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer5724.33014.687
519Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes5758.97934.649
68Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari5772.08113.102
727Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes5774.1992.118
877Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes5775.1530.954
955Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari5775.6800.527
1033Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Ferrari5776.8331.153
1130Jolyon PalmerRenault5783.3996.566
1220Kevin MagnussenRenault5785.6062.207
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes5791.6996.093
1422Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda561 lap1 lap
1512Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari561 lap8.464
1694Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes561 lap79.472
Not classified
9Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari3819 laps18 lapsTyre
7Kimi RaikkonenFerrari2136 laps17 lapsFire
88Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1740 laps4 lapsGearbox
21Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1641 laps1 lapAccident
14Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1641 laps0.572Accident
26Daniil KvyatRed Bull-TAG Heuer057 laps16 lapsElectrics

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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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64 comments on “2016 Australian Grand Prix result”

  1. I love Toro Rosso, but I hate Toro Rosso. Such an exciting team, such exciting drivers, but tactically completely inept. Tyre choices bad, pit stop calls to the detriment of the faster driver, no driver change decisions (Sainz was holding up Verstappen), bad coaching. Very disappointed by Verstappen losing it as a hothead, he’s a bit like his father. But he should have been fifth here, and he’s not. I can imagine the frustration…

    1. Don’t assume sainz was holding up max. The whole race the laptimes were pretty close. I am a Max fan, but there was no reason for the team to let him pass Sainz. After Sainz fell behind back to 12 after the pitstop, they should have never called in max. Unless the tires were really bad. Or give him medium, while he had softs left. Also the undercut was a bit questionable, though Sainz was on his tyres longer the second time, so i guess it makes a bit of sense.

      1. Verstappen was faster all race. Had Sainz let him past I bet you Verstappen would have caught (and probably passed) Bottas, Hulkenburg and maybe Grosjean. Not that it matters, Sainz was entitled to stay ahead, but considering the only reason Verstappen was behind him was a Toro Rosso error, I can imagine scenarios where the team would rectify that error by asking drivers to switch. It’s not unprecedented.

      2. And then Verstappen caught up on destroyed tyres after a spin … It was pretty clear who was fastest this week-end.

        1. Are you saying that Sainz couldn’t go faster then the 1:33 ? They were both stuck, just like lewis was stuck behind max for the first part. When they overtook Palmer, they were both doing 1:31. Besides if Sainz let max pass and he got stuck behind Bottas, he would have never given the place back to Carlos. Sainz did what every driver should do. Let Max fight him for it.

        2. I think the constant car in front of SAI has something to do with the speed that VES could catch up. If he was sooo much faster he should have passed, no? He had the team OK to do so.

          In summary, it is easy to be faster in clean air.

          VES just took the crybaby trophy. Let’s hope that he grows up. By the way, I just read Alonso’s saying ‘he may have lost the reference for the braking point’ (against GUT). Let’s replay VES in Monaco last year.

        3. That just shows Sainz’ lack of racing skills then if he couldn’t pass the car in front despite a supposedly big pace advantage. How long did Palmer stay in front of Verstappen? One corner?

          1. One corner? C’mon! Verstappen took advantage of Sainz’s overtake. Palmer was suffering in that corner, at that moment. In equal conditions, Verstappen would have had the same problems as Sainz. Overtaking isn’t as easy as it seems, guys. Max is still a child, I hope today we all have seen it.

          2. Yes, because Palmer had been pushed off his line by Sainz.

          3. You do realise Max was helped by palmer losing his momentun while Sainz got past…don’t you?
            I like max a lot but I also feel Sainz is doing pretty damn good job and is going unnoticed in all of the hype surrounding max.. And lastly Sainz did what every racing driver should do

          4. Palmer after getting pased by SAI had suddenly worse line, dirty air and no DRS. I guess not a factor at all.

        4. Verstappen caught Sainz quite quickly after his spin, but did you see how he destroyed his tires in the process? He wasn’t close to Sainz for much later after being so over-enthusiastic.

          1. he caught Sainz, because Sainz was still tucked behind a slower car, and not in fresh air like Verstappen.

      3. I think Max had a point but he lacked class today. Faster drivers should try to pass on track, I can’t stand drivers who ask ten times per race for a pit ordered easy pass.

        1. Just a classic example of a frustrated driver losing his cool. Max could well have finished 5th today but at the same time could have crashed out (and taking out Sainz). TR strategy calls were just a mess. Missed opportunity.

    2. If Max can’t pass Carlos, he couldn’t have passed Bottas, no worth crying over spilt milk, 1st races are usually chaotic, all the nerves will be settled by 2nd or 3rd race. Remember how williams lost so many points due to strategy even though they had the pace in 2014 but in the end got their acts together.

    3. Verstappen was the quicker driver of the both, the team strategy is very clear…. the faster driver will get the first pit.
      Verstappen could hold of Hamilton, Sainz could not and demanded his pit before the team had any say in it.

      There’s where Sainz screwed up Verstappens race, the team was ready for Verstappen not Sainz, Verstappen lost 6 seconds cause the team wasn’t prepared. So far just one minor issue….

      Back on trach Verstappen rapidly closed the gap but Sainz got stuck behind the much slower Palmer…
      The thing is Verstappen doesn’t get stuck in such situations, he creates gap to overtake.

      When it takes round after round tyres get worn and we saw Verstappen loosing a very realistic P5 for the race.

      After the race he was boiling, his neck went red…. ‘I knw where it’s at’ he said. I think the partnering inside TR is over, it will be each driver form themselves. Sainz put his own glory before very realistic high team results.

      1. don’t forget Verstappen denying team orders a couple times last year – “put his own glory” as your words, so it was probably each driver for their own before this race, and Toro Rosso never actually gave Sainz a team order in this race, it was just Verstappen asking if he can pass, and the team replied yes, as in “yes you can try”

    4. coaching is “banned”

  2. On paper it looks like Manor are in the same place, but they were able to keep ahead of Sauber and a Williams in the first stint, only a poor pit stop dropped him behind them.

    1. I was expecting more from Manor and from Williams but my expectations were nowhere near Ted Kravitz who said Manor would be in front of McLaren… maybe down the road

    2. @geemac Also Wehrlein being on supersoft after the red flag, but in traffic surely didn´t help. Might have gone through without getting lapped if on the same strategy as Rosberg today, will probably be only lapped once on tracks they were lapped 4 times last year, will be a danger to Sauber, might be a danger for McLaren, Renault and Gutierrez when those have incidents. Definitely the biggest improvers on pace.

    3. Ah good to know @geemac, I lost track of Wehrlein but interested in how they fare – he did have a great start and then managed to stay in 14th for a long time, so clearly improvement in pace there, last year they’d have been passed within a lap.

    4. Wehrlein only got lapped once, so that’s already a sign of a much more competitive package than they had last year.

  3. A classic lucky Rosberg win for Nick there.. ;) everything just seemed to fall into place around him!

    Great drive by Lewis to pull it back to second after a messy race for him.

    Would have been nice to see if Vettel could’ve done anything if he hadn’t have ran off the track.

    Amazing result for Haas, and fantastic drive for Palmer in the Renault to hold off the two Toro Rosso’s for so long!

    1. The classic Rosberg win involves no overtakes, today was a perfect example.

      1. The classic Rosberg win involves no overtakes, today was a perfect example.

        I know that this doesn’t discredit his wins, as he puts himself in a position to win these races, but here’s an interesting fact: 12 out of Rosberg’s 15 wins do not include a single overtake in the race beyond sector 1 of lap 1 (the start basically). The 3 races that do involve overtakes are China 2012, Austria 2014 and Brazil 2014 – all overtakes done on slower cars with much older tyres.

        He’s no Alonso or Button when it comes down to the entertainment of his wins, but at the end of the day, you gotta do what you gotta do. Speaking of which, he’s just matched Button’s win tally.

    2. Better start than his team mate, got track position, which is paramount between Mercedes drivers as we saw last season.

      Undercut worked: kept Hulkenberg out, almost got Vettel.

      No error, unlike his teammate which could have cost him 2nd.

      He did his part, let’s put it this way.

      1. @stefanauss His start actually also bad, but he lucky enough to get the apex behind Vettel unlike Hamilton who dont get the apex and as the result can’t defend from further 3 cars that took the outside lane. Mind you he also get passed by Raikkonen and the undercut works because Ferrari had to protect Vettel lead.

      2. No disrespect to the guy.. But as mentioned above, you never see much of a battle for a rosberg win, he always seems to just float about and if/when something goes wrong for someone else it lands him in a good spot. He didn’t have a great start either, just had better track position goi g into turn one to able himself to push Hamilton out to gain a place!

        Anyway it’s not a rant about nico, just an opinion of luck haha

    3. @nemo87 In 1982 Rosberg became champion as contenders literally fell around him………

  4. I’m pretty sure Ferrari went safe for the restart with Vettel and thought they could put Raikkonen in front of Rosberg, as raikkonen went in a blaze Ferrari simply weren’t quick enough to make the strategy work, missed opportunity, perhaps the sign that Ferrari has better expectations. Really clever to test the medium in testing as it maybe, the single set tyre for many weekends. Renault made a gigantic step.

  5. Ferrari really blew that by restarting on softs. They had the pace to stay in front of Rosberg. No idea why they didn’t put on mediums.

  6. Nico was very solid. After start, I didn’t think there would be second chance. Maybe superior car still he lovely managed it. Hamilton and Vettel’s mistake was disappointing, otherwise it would be great wheel to wheel.

    Today I’m very disappointed by crying Max. Sainz was solid and fair enough but it seems Max believes he got some unfair right.

    Glad to see Alonso and Gutierez fine.

    Lastly but not least, congratulations Hass and Grosjean! I don’t think they have one lap pace but race pace was quite good.

    1. different story and reaction if it was Rio who crashed LOL

    2. Verstappen is a crybaby but have you seen how quickly he caught up after his spin? That was sick.

      1. That is because of the low pace that those cars ahead of him were having. Simple.

      2. did you see how slow cars in front of sainz were? sainz was stuck just like hamilton was when verstappen held him up.

      3. @ Patrick. With that train in front I could’ve done the same in a Manor. Give it a rest..

  7. Grosjean putting the Haas in 6th in the team’s first race cannot be praised too much, both driver and team. What a debut!

  8. Does anyone know what the difference between the onscreen graphics for the tyres mean? I noticed, for example, that when Rosberg was on medium, it showed it as a white background with black text, while Hamilton on a medium had a black background and white text.

    Is the inverted colour something to do with new vs used, or driver choice vs pirelli compulsory tyre?

    1. used and new tyres. The filled circle ones are the new ones

  9. That was not cool Max, that was not cool. Lost a bit of respect for Verstappen here. Why does he think that he is entitled to team orders? Nobody is! He did not deserve any points today with that attitude.

    1. The driver who’s in front usually has the opportunity to pit first, yet Toro Rosso didn’t listen to him and pitted Sainz before Max.

      1. To be fair they hardly “pitted Sainz first” as I recall Sainz just said on the radio “I’m boxing” and came in. Not much the team can do about that. They’re not going to make him go around again until Verstappen feels like it.

        1. @skipgamer

          And yet everyone is bashing Verstappen while he duly followed his team orders.

          Sainz, who took matters into his own hands and ignored the pit walk, gets a free pass.

  10. Ah I’m so tired of this Rosberg domination, 4 in a row. 😄

  11. MG421982 (@)
    20th March 2016, 7:13

    Pretty good race. Happy ROS won it.

    Mercedes not only (still) have the best car, but they have the best luck too. In my opinion, Vettel had most chances to win the race if there was no SC/RF period. Also, I suspect Kimi’s retirement too had something to do with the SC/RF period.
    Great job by Grosjean/HAAS, happy for them. On the other hand, wow, McLaren-Honda is so… dead! I really feel for Alonso. Going back to McLaren seems to be the worst mistake of his F1 career. This move could even end his career even sooner than expected because of the very poor results.

  12. I wonder if Alonso would get out of this car that easily with the “halo” on…

    Dan like always pushing, amazing story with Hass and it was good to see some fight at the front.
    Lost any amount of respect I had left to Verstappen though, who needs such cry-babies? Hulk as always boring (but he got 7th right?) and bit disappointed with Macca.
    If only the weather stayed from yesterday we could have a really great race but in the end it was still better than expected for AU GP.

  13. Congratulations to Romain and HAAS team. Great effort and exceptional result!

  14. lol. How’s the race? I can’t watch it and I don’t know whether I should keep being an F1 fan if its classic boring 2015 race type, Anyway Rosberg get 4 wins in a row now, very interesting. Haas seems to be very quick as a “newbie”, although Grosjean is no slouch at all. McLaren are still disappointing, Ferrari progress over winter 2015 obviously not as big as 2014 one, although its still very nice. TAG is better than Renault, but it seem to be a small margin. Again, this is my first impression on the result of first race of the season after not following F1 for like 4 months.
    Have a nice day!

    1. @deongunner

      I should keep being an F1 fan if its classic boring 2015 race type

      Ferrari 1-2 at the beginning, ALO hit GUT, the race got red-flagged, and then Mercedes got the better strategy than Ferrari afterwards and VET fell to 3rd after RAI retired.

      The other Haas finished 6th.

    2. @deongunner you better do some catch-up or stop following at all.
      TAG is not better than Renault, TAG is Renault and for me was easy to see the engine is much better in both teams, as they could fight with “much better” engines (just look how Palmer could keep both Toro Rossos behind for so long un much used tyres and even with them having DRS).

      HOWEVER, Melbourne is always a particular race so we need a couple of more races in “traditional” tracks to see how things are and if the trend displayed this race is confirmed or the order actually changes.

    3. Dont just go by the final result. The race was pretty good considering how bland 2015 races were.

    4. Duncan Snowden
      20th March 2016, 16:16

      “I don’t know whether I should keep being an F1 fan if its classic boring 2015 race type”

      *sigh* There’s always one, isn’t there?

      You know what I find boring? People constantly complaining about how boring F1 is. After 30-odd years, that’s really beginning to get old now.

  15. Merc had some luck today but they need to address their start problems coz they faced the same situation last year. But they clearly have a monster car!! On mediums they were able to hold for around 40 laps with them matching VET’s SS times at one stage!

  16. But TR miraculously had SAI wheels ready (unlike for VES)? How?

  17. Sviatoslav (@)
    20th March 2016, 7:46

    McLaren is disappointing. They are just terrible regarding race-pace.

    1. Or perhaps just a matter of the wrong tyre choices, as Button said @sviat, let’s wait and see at least another, more traditional, track before writing them off.

      1. Sviatoslav (@)
        20th March 2016, 10:20

        Yeah, that is also true. But I saw that Alonso wasn’t able keep up the Hulk’s rhythm, when Hulk was using the soft compound. Alonso had supersofts.

  18. Gotta say bit disappointed with Ferrari they could (should) of had the one two here. Their handling of the red flag situation and their reliability issues robbed us of a much more exciting start to the championship.

    Toro Rosso looks like it has an awesome car. Imagine what they could have done today if they had the 2016 Ferrari engine!

    Very disappointed with Verstappens attitude over the radio today

    Lots of mistakes this weekend. The only front runner that I can’t think had a clean weekend is Raikkonen (haven’t been consciously keeping track of that though so could be way off)

    Is it just me or is it even more difficult following cars this year than last? Seemed like everywhere you looked drivers were stuck behind each other.

    The win kinda just fell into Rosbergs lap today but in the end it is the start to the season he needed. On balance he was pretty mediocre this weekend and needs to make a step to not repeat last seasons start (where it wasn’t until Canada I think where he looked to have gotten on the same page as Hamilton pace wise).

    Grosjean was lucky with the red flag today but his driving was great. A well deserved points result for him and haas in their first race.

    Finally I think it is the first time since Singapore 2014 that we have a new championship leader, maybe after Bahrain we may yet have a new team leading!

  19. That was a fun race. The red flag kind of killed some of the more intriguing stategies happening, but it did create some other nice battles for the rest of the race. I was fixed to the scoring ticker watching the gaps for GROS, HULK, and BOTA. The Torro Roso’s charge after late pit stops. Then seeing VET charging back to HAM until the next to last lap.

    What I didn’t like. The constant complaining by VER to his team about him being faster yet making constant mistakes and running into his teammate. I don’t doubt he has so much raw talent he will be great, but him being entitled to a spot due to his times being faster is eye roll inducing.
    McLaren…oof. ALO had a good run going then made a very serious mistake that luckily didn’t hurt anyone. I am a fan, but this and where BUT ended up doesn’t bode well.

  20. Go Rio, Go Rio, Go!!! ^o^
    #Indonesia_LOVE_RioHaryanto

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