2012 Australian Grand Prix F1 Race Results

Event: Australian Grand Prix
Track: Albert Park Circuit

Weather: dry, warm, sunny

Jenson Button won his 13th F1 World Championship race at the 2012 Australia F1 GP, opening the year with a commanding McLaren victory. The McLaren driver started second and won at Albert Park by 2.139 seconds from Sebastian Vettel for Red Bull. It was McLarens 172nd F1 win.

Hamilton pole, McLaren front-row lockout

Melbourne on 18 March 2012 opened the season with Lewis Hamilton on pole for McLaren with a 1:24.922 lap, Button second by 0.152 for a McLaren 1-2 on the grid, Grosjean an impressive third on Lotuss debut race with the E20, Schumacher fourth for Mercedes GP. Vettel, opening his title defence, could only qualify sixth.

Race day: Button jumps Hamilton, Vettel recovers to second

Button beat Hamilton off the line into Turn 1 and led throughout the 58-lap race, controlling the pace and managing the Pirelli tyres on the drying-but-cool Albert Park surface. Vettel, aided by an early first stop, jumped Hamilton in the pit exchange and held second to the flag. Hamilton settled for third, Webber fourth for the sister Red Bull, Alonso fifth for Ferrari, Kobayashi sixth for Sauber, Raikkonen a fine seventh on his F1 comeback with Lotus after his 2010-2011 sabbatical in the WRC. Button also set the fastest lap on lap 56 at 1:29.187.

Championship: Button 25, Vettel 18, Hamilton 15

McLaren looked the class of the field on opening night; the new-for-2012 stepped-nose regulations had reshuffled the aero hierarchy. Malaysia at Sepang in a week would be next.

Race Classification

Classification 2012 Australian GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	3	JensonButton	McLaren	McLaren MP4/27Mercedes FO 108	2	58	56	1:34:09.565	25
2	1	SebastianVettel	Red Bull	Red Bull RB8Renault RS27	6	58	1	1:34:11.704+2.139s	18
3	4	LewisHamilton	McLaren	McLaren MP4/27Mercedes FO 108	1	58	1	1:34:13.640+4.075s	15
4	2	MarkWebber	Red Bull	Red Bull RB8Renault RS27	5	58	0	1:34:31.130+21.565s	12
5	5	FernandoAlonso	Ferrari	Ferrari F2012Ferrari 056	12	58	0	1:34:31.130+21.565s	10
6	14	KamuiKobayashi	Sauber	Sauber C31Ferrari 056	13	58	0	1:34:46.331+36.766s	8
7	9	KimiRäikkönen	Lotus F1	Lotus E20Renault RS27	17	58	0	1:34:47.579+38.014s	6
8	15	SergioPérez	Sauber	Sauber C31Ferrari 056	22	58	0	1:34:49.023+39.458s	4
9	16	DanielRicciardo	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR7Ferrari 056	10	58	0	1:34:49.121+39.556s	2
10	11	Pauldi Resta	Force India	Force India VJM05Mercedes FO 108	15	58	0	1:34:49.302+39.737s	1
11	17	Jean-EricVergne	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR7Ferrari 056	11	58	0	1:34:49.413+39.848s	0
12	8	NicoRosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes W03Mercedes FO 108	7	58	0	1:35:07.207+57.642s	0
13	18	PastorMaldonado	Williams	Williams FW34Renault RS27	8	57	0	Accident	0
14	24	TimoGlock	Manor	Marussia MR01Cosworth CA2010	20	57	0	1:35:54.824+1:45.259	0
15	25	CharlesPic	Manor	Marussia MR01Cosworth CA2010	21	53	0	Oil pressure	0
16	19	BrunoSenna	Williams	Williams FW34Renault RS27	14	52	0	Collision damage	0
DNF	6	FelipeMassa	Ferrari	Ferrari F2012Ferrari 056	16	46	0	Collision damage	0
DNF	20	HeikkiKovalainen	Caterham	Caterham CT01Renault RS27	18	38	0	Suspension	0
DNF	21	VitalyPetrov	Caterham	Caterham CT01Renault RS27	19	34	0	Steering	0
DNF	7	MichaelSchumacher	Mercedes	Mercedes W03Mercedes FO 108	4	10	0	Gearbox	0
DNF	10	RomainGrosjean	Lotus F1	Lotus E20Renault RS27	3	1	0	Collision	0
DNF	12	NicoHülkenberg	Force India	Force India VJM05Mercedes FO 108	9	0	0	Collision damage	0
DNQ	22	Pedrode la Rosa	HRT	HRT F112 Cosworth CA2010	23	0	0	+58 laps	0
DNQ	23	NarainKarthikeyan	HRT	HRT F112 Cosworth CA2010	24	0	0	+58 laps	0

Fastest lap: 1:29.187 min by Jenson Button (McLaren MP4-27) in lap 56

Qualifying Results

Qualifying 2012 Australian GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Laps	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	4	LewisHamilton	McLaren	McLaren MP4/27Mercedes FO 108	14	1:26.800+0.618s	1:25.626+0.157s	1:24.922
2	3	JensonButton	McLaren	McLaren MP4/27Mercedes FO 108	15	1:26.832+0.650s	1:25.663+0.194s	1:25.074+0.152s
3	10	RomainGrosjean	Lotus F1	Lotus E20Renault RS27	21	1:26.498+0.316s	1:25.845+0.376s	1:25.302+0.380s
4	7	MichaelSchumacher	Mercedes	Mercedes W03Mercedes FO 108	18	1:26.586+0.404s	1:25.571+0.102s	1:25.336+0.414s
5	2	MarkWebber	Red Bull	Red Bull RB8Renault RS27	17	1:27.117+0.935s	1:26.297+0.828s	1:25.651+0.729s
6	1	SebastianVettel	Red Bull	Red Bull RB8Renault RS27	18	1:26.773+0.591s	1:25.982+0.513s	1:25.668+0.746s
7	8	NicoRosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes W03Mercedes FO 108	16	1:26.763+0.581s	1:25.469	1:25.686+0.764s
8	18	PastorMaldonado	Williams	Williams FW34Renault RS27	20	1:26.803+0.621s	1:26.206+0.737s	1:25.908+0.986s
9	12	NicoHülkenberg	Force India	Force India VJM05Mercedes FO 108	18	1:27.464+1.282s	1:26.314+0.845s	1:26.451+1.529s
10	16	DanielRicciardo	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR7Ferrari 056	16	1:27.024+0.842s	1:26.319+0.850s	No time
11	17	Jean-EricVergne	Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR7Ferrari 056	12	1:26.493+0.311s	1:26.429+0.960s
12	5	FernandoAlonso	Ferrari	Ferrari F2012Ferrari 056	12	1:26.688+0.506s	1:26.494+1.025s
13	14	KamuiKobayashi	Sauber	Sauber C31Ferrari 056	12	1:26.182	1:26.590+1.121s
14	19	BrunoSenna	Williams	Williams FW34Renault RS27	16	1:27.004+0.822s	1:26.663+1.194s
15	11	Pauldi Resta	Force India	Force India VJM05Mercedes FO 108	16	1:27.469+1.287s	1:27.086+1.617s
16	6	FelipeMassa	Ferrari	Ferrari F2012Ferrari 056	16	1:27.633+1.451s	1:27.497+2.028s
17	15	SergioPérez	Sauber	Sauber C31Ferrari 056	11	1:26.596+0.414s	No time
18	9	KimiRäikkönen	Lotus F1	Lotus E20Renault RS27	9	1:27.758+1.576s
19	20	HeikkiKovalainen	Caterham	Caterham CT01Renault RS27	7	1:28.679+2.497s
20	21	VitalyPetrov	Caterham	Caterham CT01Renault RS27	8	1:29.018+2.836s
21	24	TimoGlock	Manor	Marussia MR01Cosworth CA2010	10	1:30.923+4.741s
22	25	CharlesPic	Manor	Marussia MR01Cosworth CA2010	9	1:31.670+5.488s
DNQ	22	Pedrode la Rosa	HRT	HRT F112 Cosworth CA2010	6	1:33.495+7.313s
DNQ	23	NarainKarthikeyan	HRT	HRT F112 Cosworth CA2010	6	1:33.643+7.461s

✅ Check out 2012 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 2012 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

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Leopold

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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