2016 Australian Grand Prix

2016 Australian Grand Prix
Previous←	2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Round	1 of 2016
Next→	2016 Bahrain Grand Prix
Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit
Race Details
Date	March 20, 2016
Official Name	2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
Location	Albert Park Circuit Melbourne, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit 5.303 km (3.295 mi)
Distance	58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time	1:23.837
Fastest Lap
Driver	Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer
Time	1:28.997 on lap 49
Podium
First	Nico Rosberg
Second	Lewis Hamilton
Third	Sebastian Vettel
Lap Leaders

The 2016 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) was the first race of the 2016 Formula One season. The race was the 81st Australian Grand Prix, the 32nd time as a round of the Formula One World Championship, and the 21st F1 race to be held at the Albert Park Circuit. Lewis Hamilton entered the race as World Champion.

Hamilton took pole position in qualifying over Nico Rosberg. The new qualifying system was criticized, with many thinking that it was a bad idea. Christian Horner said it "not good for F1" and Niki Lauda felt that it was a big mistake.

Background

Weather Conditions
Practice 1	Light Rain
Practice 2	Rain
Practice 3	Cloudy
Qualifying	Sunny
Race	Sunny

Available Tyres
Softest	Supersoft
Mid	Soft
Hardest	Medium
Inters	Intermediate
Wets	Wet

The first round of the 2016 Championship followed a winter of heavy development for all of the engine manufacturers, although the advantage seemed to be with Mercedes. Despite not setting any headline times in the eight test days, the Silver Arrows came to Australia as favourites having completed almost an entire season's race distance with only one mechanical failure. Ferrari had closed the gap to ensure that the Mercedes would be under pressure, with the Tifosi and the Silver Arrows fielding unchanged driver line-ups.

Elsewhere, Renault looked to have improved over the winter as did Honda, although both still appeared to be siginficantly down on power compared to Mercedes. Yet, even minor improvements were to the benefit of Red Bull, who would run under Tag Heuer branded Renault power for 2016, and looked set to battle with Williams, Force India (both Mercedes powered) and Toro Rosso (using a 2015-spec Ferrari engine) for third in the Championship. McLaren also looked in better shape with Honda than in 2015, although it seemed that the Japanese built engine would keep them near the back of the field.

Sauber looked in relatively decent shape ahead of the weekend in Australia, having only tested their 2016 car for four of the eight test days after financial issues. They looked set to battle with McLaren and the reformed Renault team for midfield spots, while Manor Racing, sporting a new Mercedes partnership, and the new Haas F1 Team looked set to do battle at the back of the field. That said, Manor were in the strongest position they had ever been in ahead of the first race of the season, while Haas had shown genuine pace in testing despite it being their first season, meaning points would be the ambition for both.

Melbourne was also to see the debuts of three new faces to Formula One, headlined by 2015 DTM Champion Pascal Wehrlein at Manor. The Maltese born German was to do battle at Manor alongside Rio Haryanto, who would become the first Indonesian driver to compete in the World Championship. Also joining the fray would be former GP2 Series Champion Jolyon Palmer, the Brit joining the reformed Renault Sport F1 Team in place of Romain Grosjean, whom had moved to Haas.

Leaving F1 were Pastor Maldonado, the Venezuelan falling due to a lack of sponsorship payments, Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi and Alexander Rossi. The latter trio were dropped in favour of Wehrlein and Haryanto for a variety of reasons, although Rossi was retained as a test driver for them for the new season. Maldonado's seat was to be filled by Kevin Magnussen, the Dane departing McLaren after they opted to retain Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, while the final seat available on the grid was filled by Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez at Haas. The latter two were making their returns to the Championship.

The V8 Supercars Championship, native to Australia, was to fill its traditional role as a support series to Formula One, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Albert Park race's debut in 1996.

Entry list

The full entry list for the 2016 Australian Grand Prix is shown below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W07 Hybrid	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W07 Hybrid	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF16-H	Ferrari	059/5	P
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF16-H	Ferrari	059/5	P
19	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	Williams	FW38	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	Williams	FW38	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB12	TAG Heuer		P
26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB12	TAG Heuer		P
27	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM09	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
11	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM09	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault Sport F1 Team	Renault	RS16	Renault	RE16	P
30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team	Renault	RS16	Renault	RE16	P
33	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR11	Ferrari	059/3	P
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR11	Ferrari	059/3	P
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C35	Ferrari	059/5	P
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C35	Ferrari	059/5	P
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda F1 Team	McLaren	MP4-31	Honda	RA616H Hybrid	P
22	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda F1 Team	McLaren	MP4-31	Honda	RA616H Hybrid	P
88	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing MRT	Manor	MRT05	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing MRT	Manor	MRT05	Mercedes	PU106C Hybrid	P
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-16	Ferrari	059/5	P
21	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-16	Ferrari	059/5	P

Practice Overview

FP1

Felipe Massa in the rain

A gloomy and overcast backdrop set the scene for the first practice session of the season. Heavy rain overnight, continuing into the early morning had left the Albert Park circuit heavily soaked. Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari became the first man to venture out onto track on wet tyres. Vettel only went out for one scouting lap before returning to the pits.

Nico Rosberg who followed Vettel out the pits became the first driver of the season to set a timed lap. His lap was somewhat held up by Kevin Magnussen's Renault that exited the pits as he entered the first corner. Sergio Pérez whilst attempting to do a practice start, stalled his car at the exit of the pitlane. The Force India mechanics rushing up to the end of the pitlane to push him back to his garage.

After a couple of timed laps, Rosberg returns to the pits. Teammate Lewis Hamilton, also on intermediates ventures out. Nearly all the cars with the exception of Esteban Gutiérrez, Carlos Sainz, Jr. and Rio Haryanto have been on track to set installation laps.

Mercedes have been lapping competitively, between Hamilton and Rosberg, the duo have completed 19 laps. The Red Bull's of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo have set competitive lap times to put their cars just behind the Mercedes.

The track has gone quiet, the wet conditions providing little action. Fernando Alonso can be seen in intense conversation with his engineers and Ron Dennis.  Kimi Räikkönen takes over the top of the timesheets in his Ferrari ahead of the Mercedes cars. Teammate Vettel does another installation lap but pits his car yet again, he has yet to set a timed lap.

Gutiérrez is the only car to yet venture on track, his Haas being grounded with a technical problem. The two McLaren's venture back out onto track, both Button and Alonso are on soft tyres. Ricciardo follows them out on the medium tyre.

Sainz has been hounded by a technical problem upon leaving the track, the Toro Rosso moving around very slowly on track. His car grounds to a halt in the middle of the pit-lane, his mechanics rushing down the pitlane to push back Sainz's crippled car to their garage.

Ricciardo on the slick tyres sets the new fastest lap time, teammate Kvyat moves into second. Alonso is third whilst Button returns to the pits after one lap. It seems like it is time for slicks, the rain suddenly returns again. Hamilton who returned to the track on slicks was caught out at the wrong time and performs a big lock-up as the track gets wetter once again.

The two Renault's of Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen are on intermediates whilst the rest of the cars remain on slicks. Gutiérrez's car appears to be repaired and he finally heads out on track on intermediates. As the rain increases, the cars return to the pits.

Button returns to the track on intermediates, he sets the seventh fastest time whilst Verstappen in the Toro Rosso goes fourth. Verstappen pushing hard could be seen locking up at several moments on track. Gutiérrez sets the ninth fastest lap time, however reports an "inconsistency in power delivery" over the radio.

The rain has stopped and the sun has for the first time began shining through the clouds. Verstappen who returned to the track on slicks had a spin exiting turn 6.  Nico Hülkenberg who has also gone out on slicks sets the new fastest time of the session. Teammate  Pérez moves into third. Hamilton also on slicks, goes one second faster than the rest of the field. Ricciardo also on slicks move into second.

The brief moment of sunshine is gone again as the rain returns, the cars on track begin to slow down. Valtteri Bottas and Rio Haryanto both spin exiting turn 6. After going fourth fastest, the next lap Kvyat takes the fastest lap. This is short lived as Hamilton soon reclaims the top spot. Hamilton performing another big lock-up going into turn 6. Rosberg meanwhile is down in sixth position.

At turn 13, Räikkönen goes straight on whilst trying to make the corner. He spins the car and returns to the circuit. The circuit now becoming too wet for slicks sees the drivers return to the pits. Rosberg had been setting a purple first and second sector before abandoning his lap.

Vettel who still hasn't set a lap time, goes out for one more installation lap in the wet conditions. 30 seconds before the end of the session, Ricciardo spins off the circuit at turn 12 and beaches his car in the gravel. Ricciardo exits the car and greets his home fans before returning to the pits on foot.

The wet conditions creating an unexpected timesheet at the end of FP1. With the cars unable to demonstrate their true potential in the unpredictable conditions, the teams would still have to wait until later to get an understanding of the grid running for the new season.

FP2

For the afternoon session, the rain remained. As the session began, the rain began to increase in intensity. Most of the drivers were sitting in the pits waiting for the conditions to improve. Daniel Ricciardo on the intermediates is the first driver to head out onto track, after setting a couple of laps he returns to the pits. Following Ricciardo, teammate Kvyat and Rosberg's Mercedes are out on track. After Rosberg goes fastest, Kvyat then takes the fastest time the next lap.

Sainz then moves into second place with the Toro Rosso car. Rosberg who had yet to set a proper lap time, then goes on his first flying lap. However exiting turn 6, Rosberg loses the back end and slams into the wall. The front of his car is badly damaged, while he attempted to make it back to the pits. His team over the radio tells him to pull off the circuit by order of the FIA. Rosberg was running a new specification front wing with the S-Duct, the team notably only having a limited number of these new front wings. Interestingly the team did not run it in FP1 in fear of it getting damaged.

As this occurred, Sainz sets the fastest time, however soon enough the time was beaten by Alonso. The Force India's of Hülkenberg and Pérez move into first and second, before Sainz retakes the top spot. Pérez had nearly spun the car when he got a wheel on the grass on his quick lap.

Alonso and Ricciardo move into second and third. Räikkönen in the Ferrari finally shows his hand and moves into the top place. Button is pushing hard to go fifth, one place ahead of teammate Alonso. Vettel's Ferrari has been running quietly, he puts his car only in sixth position.

Gutiérrez sets the ninth fastest time in his Haas whilst also sharing a trip through the gravel on his run. He and Pérez go wide and off the circuit at turn one. Hamilton finally comes out on track and on his first flying lap sets the fastest time of the session before returning to the pits.

In the last 10 minutes of the session, Williams finally send its cars of Massa and Bottas out on track to set their lap times. Apart from the Williams cars, the rest of the field headed for the pits in the remainder of the session as the rain increased. The Renault's and Williams cars did not set competitive lap times whilst Verstappen and the two Sauber's did not even make it out on track.

Practice Results

The full practice results for the 2016 Australian Grand Prix are outlined below:

No	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1:30.875	3	1:39.345	4	1:26.768	8
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	no time	21	1:40.761	8	1:25.852	3
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.814	6	1:47.356	15	1:25.800	2
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:40.754	17	1:39.486	3	1:26.435	5
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:43.443	20	1:43.731	13	1:28.292	19
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1:37.956	15	no time	-	1:27.659	14
11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	1:33.370	9	1:41.256	9	1:27.242	10
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1:34.796	13	no time	-	1:28.293	20
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1:33.060	7	1:39.895	6	1:27.263	11
19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.679	12	no time	18	1:27.151	9
20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.060	10	no time	16	1:27.871	15
21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	1:41.780	18	1:42.891	11	1:28.284	18
22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:33.129	8	1:40.008	7	1:27.341	12
26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1:30.146	2	1:42.411	10	1:27.430	13
27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:31.325	4	1:39.308	2	1:27.998	16
30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:35.477	14	no time	17	1:28.117	17
33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:31.720	5	no time	-	1:26.701	6
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.725	1	1:38.841	1	1:25.624	1
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	no time	22	1:39.694	5	1:26.257	4
77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:34.550	11	no time	19	1:26.730	7
88	Rio Haryanto	Manor-Mercedes	1:43.372	19	1:44.304	14	1:29.272	22
94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes	1:40.401	16	1:43.401	12	1:29.046	21
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos	Time		Pos	Time		Pos	Time
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		1	1:25.351		1	1:24.605		1	1:23.837	1
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes		8	1:26.934		2	1:24.796		2	1:24.197	2
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari		10	1:26.945		3	1:25.257		3	1:24.675	3
4	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari		5	1:26.579		6	1:25.615		4	1:25.033	4
5	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		9	1:26.934		7	1:25.615		5	1:25.434	5
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes		2	1:25.918		8	1:25.644		6	1:25.458	6
7	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		12	1:27.057		4	1:25.384		7	1:25.582	7
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer		11	1:26.945		5	1:25.599		8	1:25.589	8
9	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes		6	1:26.607		9	1:25.753				9
10	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes		4	1:26.550		10	1:25.865				10
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes		13	1:27.135		11	1:25.961				11
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda		3	1:26.537		12	1:26.125				12
13	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda		7	1:26.740		13	1:26.304				13
14	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault		14	1:27.241		14	1:27.601				14
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault		15	1:27.297		15	1:27.742				15
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari		16	1:27.435							16
17	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari		17	1:27.958							17
18	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-TAG Heuer		18	1:28.006							18
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari		19	1:28.322							PL*
20	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari		20	1:29.606							19
21	88	Rio Haryanto	Manor-Mercedes		21	1:29.627							20
22	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes		22	1:29.642							21
107% time: 1:31.325
Source:

• * Note - Haryanto drops three grid places for pit-lane collision with Grosjean in FP3. Bottas drops five for unscheduled gearbox change.

Grid

The starting grid of the 2016 Australian Grand Prix is as below:

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Lewis Hamilton	2
	______________	Nico Rosberg
Row 2	3	______________
	Sebastian Vettel	4
	______________	Kimi Räikkönen
Row 3	5	______________
	Max Verstappen	6
	______________	Felipe Massa
Row 4	7	______________
	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	8
	______________	Daniel Ricciardo
Row 5	9	______________
	Sergio Pérez	10
	______________	Nico Hülkenberg
Row 6	11	______________
	Fernando Alonso	12
	______________	Jenson Button
Row 7	13	______________
	Jolyon Palmer	14
	______________	Kevin Magnussen
Row 8	15	______________
	Marcus Ericsson	16
	______________	Valtteri Bottas
Row 9	17	______________
	Felipe Nasr	18
	______________	Daniil Kvyat
Row 10	19	______________
	Romain Grosjean	20
	______________	Esteban Gutiérrez
Row 11	21	______________
	Pascal Wehrlein	22
	______________	Rio Haryanto

Race

Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	1h 48m 15.565s	2	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+8.060	1	18
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	57	+9.643	3	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	57	+24.330	8	12
5	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	57	+58.979	6	10
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	57	+1:12.081	19	8
7	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1:14.199	10	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	57	+1:15.153	16	4
9	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1:15.680	7	2
10	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1:16.833	5	1
11	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	57	+1:23.399	13
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	57	+1:25.606	14
13	11	Sergio Pérez	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1:31.699	9
14	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	56	+1 Lap	12
15	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	17
16	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor-Mercedes	56	+1 Lap	21
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	38	Virbrations	15
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	21	Engine	4
Ret	88	Rio Haryanto	Manor-Mercedes	17	Hydraulics	22
Ret	21	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas-Ferrari	16	Accident	20
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	16	Accident	11
DNS	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	0	Gearbox	18
Source:

Milestones

• First Grand Prix for Haas and Manor.
• First Grand Prix for Jolyon Palmer, Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto.
• Rio Haryanto became the first driver to compete in F1 from Indonesia.
• Lewis Hamilton's 50th pole position.
• Nico Rosberg's 15th win.
• Daniel Ricciardo's 5th fastest lap.
• First points finish for Haas and became the first constructor to début in the points since Toyota in 2002.

Standings after race

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts 1 Nico Rosberg 25 2 Lewis Hamilton 18 3 Sebastian Vettel 15 4 Daniel Ricciardo 12 5 Felipe Massa 10 6 Romain Grosjean 8 7 Nico Hülkenberg 6 8 Valtteri Bottas 4 9 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 2 10 Max Verstappen 1 11 Jolyon Palmer 0 12 Kevin Magnussen 0 13 Sergio Pérez 0 14 Jenson Button 0 15 Felipe Nasr 0 16 Pascal Wehrlein 0 Source:

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts 1 Mercedes 43 2 Ferrari 15 3 Williams-Mercedes 14 4 Red Bull-TAG Heuer 12 5 Haas-Ferrari 8 6 Force India-Mercedes 6 7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 3 8 Renault 0 9 McLaren-Honda 0 10 Sauber-Ferrari 0 11 Manor-Mercedes 0 Source:

External links

• Official website

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