Race Results 2018 Australian F1 Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel - Lewis Hamilton - Kimi Raikkonen on the podium winners at Australian GP F1/2018

Event: Australian Grand Prix
Track: Albert Park Circuit

Weather: 23,9°C dry & sunny
Tarmac: 39,2°C dry
Humidity: 38,5%

Sebastian Vettel won the first grand prix of 2018 in Australia. It was his 48th F1 victory, podium no. 100 of his Formula 1 career and his 3rd win in Melbourne.

The Australian Grand Prix started without any incident. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) lost his 4th place to Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in the first corner.

In the 5th lap Williams driver and rookie Sergey Sirotkin retired his car due to a brake problem in the FW41. Marcus Ericsson had to come back to the pit, because his Sauber lost it's power steering that was caused by an hydraulic problem and also retired.

Verstappen was chasing down Magnussen but overheated his rear tires on that and spun in the first corner of lap 10. This spin costed him 2 places. His team mate Daniel Riccardo who started on 8th place also passed him on that moment.

The Toro Rosso fitted with the Honda engine this year pitted in lap 15 with engine problems. Kimi Raikkonen was the first car that pitted just to get fresh tires. He got soft Pirelli tires on his Ferrari SF71H and resumed his race.

Lewis Hamilton pitted the next lap and also got soft tires on his Mercedes W09. Sebastian Vettel pitted in lap 26 and got back on the track in front of a surprised Lewis Hamilton. The British drivers asked on the radio: "What happend? Did I make a mistake?"

Vettel was lucky to be able to pit in a virtual safety car period that was triggered by the retired VF-18 Haas car of Romain Grosjean who had a lose front left wheel after his first pit stop. A lap before the Haas car of Kevin Magnussen retired with exactly the same problem after his pit stop. Both Haas drivers had done great and were driving in the top 6.

The virtual safety car period was changed in a normal safety car period and in lap 32 the safety car drove into the pit. All drivers now were racing again and British driver Hamilton was giving it all to try and pass the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. It was a chase down to the finish line and both drivers were flat out! Vettel was able to maintain the gap between Hamilton above the 1 sec DRS distance. It also helped that Hamilton made a small error in corner 9 and ended up next to the track.

Hamilton's had to stop his attack because his rear tires were overheating and was nursing the car to the finish. Vettel won the first race of 2018, just like he did last year.

See the 2018 Australian F1 GP pictures
See current 2018 F1 Championship Standings
See current 2018 F1 Calendar

See All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
See All Time F1 Driver Records
See All Time F1 Teams Rankings

F1 classification 2018 Australian GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	5	SebastianVettel	Ferrari	Ferrari SF71-HFerrari 062 EVO	3	58	40	1:29:33.283	25
2	44	LewisHamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes W09Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	1	58	18	1:29:38.319+5.036s	18
3	7	KimiRäikkönen	Ferrari	Ferrari SF71-HFerrari 062 EVO	2	58		1:29:39.592+6.309s	15
4	3	DanielRicciardo	Red Bull	Red Bull RB14Renault R.E.18	8	58		1:29:40.352+7.069s	12
5	14	FernandoAlonso	McLaren	McLaren MCL33Renault R.E.18	10	58		1:30:01.169+27.886s	10
6	33	MaxVerstappen	Red Bull	Red Bull RB14Renault R.E.18	4	58		1:30:02.228+28.945s	8
7	27	NicoHülkenberg	Renault	Renault Sport R.S.18Renault R.E.18	7	58		1:30:05.954+32.671s	6
8	77	ValtteriBottas	Mercedes	Mercedes W09Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	15	58		1:30:07.622+34.339s	4
9	2	StoffelVandoorne	McLaren	McLaren MCL33Renault R.E.18	11	58		1:30:08.204+34.921s	2
10	55	CarlosSainz	Renault	Renault Sport R.S.18Renault R.E.18	9	58		1:30:19.005+45.722s	1
11	11	SergioPérez	Force India	Force India VJM11Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	12	58		1:30:20.100+46.817s
12	31	EstebanOcon	Force India	Force India VJM11Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	14	58		1:30:33.561+1:00.278
13	16	CharlesLeclerc	Sauber	Sauber C37Ferrari 062 EVO	18	58		1:30:49.042+1:15.759
14	18	LanceStroll	Williams	Williams FW41 Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	13	58		1:30:51.571+1:18.288
15	28	BrendonHartley	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR13Honda RA618H	16	57		1:29:55.759+22.476s
DNF	8	RomainGrosjean	Haas	Haas VF-18Ferrari 062 EVO	6	24		Wheel nut
DNF	20	KevinMagnussen	Haas	Haas VF-18Ferrari 062 EVO	5	22		Wheel nut
DNF	10	PierreGasly	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR13Honda RA618H	20	13		Power unit
DNF	9	MarcusEricsson	Sauber	Sauber C37Ferrari 062 EVO	9	5		Hydraulics
DNF	35	SergeySirotkin	Williams	Williams FW41 Mercedes M09 EQ Power+	19	4		Brakes

Fastest lap:  1:25.945 min by Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull RB14) on lap 54 @222.128 km/h
Highest speed: 319,7 km/h by Nico Hulkenberg (Renault RS18)

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Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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