Race · Round 1 of 20 · 18 March 2012

2012 Australian Grand Prix

Jenson Button won for McLaren from 2nd on the grid at Albert Park. 6 of the starters were not classified.

Dry · High of 21 °C, no rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Albert ParkMelbourne, Australia
Winner: Jenson ButtonMcLaren
Pole: Sir Lewis Hamilton
Fastest lap: Jenson Button
Entries: 2416 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Jenson Button	McLaren	MP4-27	2	58	Finished	25	fastest lap
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	RB8	6	58	Finished	18
3	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	MP4-27	1	58	Finished	15
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	RB8	5	58	Finished	12
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	F2012	12	58	Finished	10
6	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	C31	13	58	Finished	8
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	E20	17	58	Finished	6
8	Sergio Perez	Sauber	C31	22	58	Finished	4
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	STR7	10	58	Finished	2
10	Paul di Resta	Force India	VJM05	15	58	Finished	1
11	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	STR7	11	58	Finished	0
12	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	F1 W03	7	58	Finished	0
13	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	FW34	8	57	Accident	0
14	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	MR01	20	57	Finished	0
15	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	MR01	21	53	Oil pressure	0
16	Bruno Senna	Williams	FW34	14	52	Collision damage	0
DNF	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F2012	16	46	Collision damage	0
DNF	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	CT01	18	38	Suspension	0
DNF	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	CT01	19	34	Steering	0
DNF	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	F1 W03	4	10	Gearbox	0
DNF	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	E20	3	1	Collision	0
DNF	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	VJM05	9	0	Collision damage	0
DNQ	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	F112	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	F112	—	—	DNQ	0

F1DB layout melbourne-1 · 5.303 km · 16 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Jenson Button	2	1	58
Sebastian Vettel	6	2	58
Sir Lewis Hamilton	1	3	58
Mark Webber	5	4	58
Fernando Alonso	12	5	58
Kamui Kobayashi	13	6	58
Kimi Raikkonen	17	7	58
Sergio Perez	22	8	58
Daniel Ricciardo	10	9	58
Paul di Resta	15	10	58
Jean-Éric Vergne	11	11	58
Nico Rosberg	7	12	58
Pastor Maldonado	8	13	57
Timo Glock	20	14	57
Charles Pic	21	15	53
Bruno Senna	14	16	52
Felipe Massa	16	DNF	46
Heikki Kovalainen	18	DNF	38
Vitaly Petrov	19	DNF	34
Michael Schumacher	4	DNF	10
Romain Grosjean	3	DNF	1
Nico Hulkenberg	9	DNF	0

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Q1	Q2	Q3	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:26.800	1:25.626	1:24.922	—	0 m	—
2	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:26.832	1:25.663	1:25.074	+0.152	9 m	+0.152
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:26.498	1:25.845	1:25.302	+0.380	24 m	+0.228
4	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:26.586	1:25.571	1:25.336	+0.414	26 m	+0.034
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:27.117	1:26.297	1:25.651	+0.729	46 m	+0.315
6	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:26.773	1:25.982	1:25.668	+0.746	47 m	+0.017
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:26.763	1:25.469	1:25.686	+0.764	48 m	+0.018
8	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:26.803	1:26.206	1:25.908	+0.986	62 m	+0.222
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:27.464	1:26.314	1:26.451	+1.529	95 m	+0.543
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:27.024	1:26.319	—	—	53 m	—
11	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:26.493	1:26.429	—	—	60 m	—
12	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:26.688	1:26.494	—	—	64 m	—
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:26.182	1:26.590	—	—	70 m	—
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:27.004	1:26.663	—	—	74 m	—
15	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:27.469	1:27.086	—	—	100 m	—
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:27.633	1:27.497	—	—	126 m	—
17	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:26.596	—	—	—	25 m	—
18	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:27.758	—	—	—	97 m	—
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:28.679	—	—	—	154 m	—
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:29.018	—	—	—	175 m	—
21	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:30.923	—	—	—	292 m	—
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:31.670	—	—	—	338 m	—
NC	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:33.495	—	—	—	450 m	—
NC	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:33.643	—	—	—	459 m	—

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year. Each driver is measured against the fastest lap of the last part they set a time in.

Pit stops

Bars run in finishing order, ticked at each stop. An unticked bar may hide a stop: F1DB’s record has gaps. A cross is a driver not classified. Ticks and strip mark the lap, not cause, tyres or gain; the table gives times.

Pit stops
Driver	Result	Laps	Stops recorded	Stopped on lap	Pit-lane time (s)
Jenson Button	1	58	2	16, 36	23.3, 22.8
Sebastian Vettel	2	58	2	16, 37	24.3, 24.1
Sir Lewis Hamilton	3	58	2	17, 36	22.9, 23.5
Mark Webber	4	58	2	14, 37	23.3, 22.9
Fernando Alonso	5	58	2	13, 34	22.0, 21.9
Kamui Kobayashi	6	58	2	13, 36	25.3, 24.2
Kimi Raikkonen	7	58	2	19, 37	24.9, 23.3
Sergio Perez	8	58	1	24	23.9
Daniel Ricciardo	9	58	3	1, 22, 38	32.3, 23.3, 24.3
Paul di Resta	10	58	2	13, 33	24.9, 24.6
Jean-Éric Vergne	11	58	2	19, 37	23.2, 23.6
Nico Rosberg	12	58	2	12, 31	23.2, 23.0
Pastor Maldonado	13	57	2	16, 37	23.4, 23.2
Timo Glock	14	57	2	20, 36	26.3, 25.0
Charles Pic	15	53	3	21, 35, 51	25.3, 49.0, 17.1
Bruno Senna	16	52	3	1, 30, 47	24.6, 23.8, 30.9
Felipe Massa	DNF	46	3	11, 28, 37	22.3, 22.5, 22.1
Heikki Kovalainen	DNF	38	3	14, 34, 37	24.4, 24.6, 28.9
Vitaly Petrov	DNF	34	1	18	24.6
Michael Schumacher	DNF	10	0	None recorded	—
Romain Grosjean	DNF	1	0	None recorded	—
Nico Hulkenberg	DNF	0	0	None recorded	—

A pit-lane time is all of a stop’s time in the pit lane, any wait or repair there included.

Who stopped first, between neighbours

Who stopped first, between neighbours
Drivers, in grid order	Grid	Result	First recorded stop, lap	Stopped first	Grid to flag
Sir Lewis Hamilton · Jenson Button	1 · 2	3 · 1	17 · 16	Jenson Button	Swapped places
Jenson Button · Sebastian Vettel	2 · 6	1 · 2	16 · 16	Same lap	Kept their order
Sir Lewis Hamilton · Sebastian Vettel	1 · 6	3 · 2	17 · 16	Sebastian Vettel	Swapped places
Mark Webber · Sebastian Vettel	5 · 6	4 · 2	14 · 16	Mark Webber	Swapped places
Sebastian Vettel · Nico Rosberg	6 · 7	2 · 12	16 · 12	Nico Rosberg	Kept their order
Sir Lewis Hamilton · Mark Webber	1 · 5	3 · 4	17 · 14	Mark Webber	Kept their order
Mark Webber · Fernando Alonso	5 · 12	4 · 5	14 · 13	Fernando Alonso	Kept their order
Jean-Éric Vergne · Fernando Alonso	11 · 12	11 · 5	19 · 13	Fernando Alonso	Swapped places
Fernando Alonso · Kamui Kobayashi	12 · 13	5 · 6	13 · 13	Same lap	Kept their order
Kamui Kobayashi · Kimi Raikkonen	13 · 17	6 · 7	13 · 19	Kamui Kobayashi	Kept their order
Kamui Kobayashi · Bruno Senna	13 · 14	6 · 16	13 · 1	Bruno Senna	Kept their order
Kimi Raikkonen · Sergio Perez	17 · 22	7 · 8	19 · 24	Kimi Raikkonen	Kept their order
Daniel Ricciardo · Sergio Perez	10 · 22	9 · 8	1 · 24	Daniel Ricciardo	Swapped places
Charles Pic · Sergio Perez	21 · 22	15 · 8	21 · 24	Charles Pic	Swapped places
Daniel Ricciardo · Paul di Resta	10 · 15	9 · 10	1 · 13	Daniel Ricciardo	Kept their order
Daniel Ricciardo · Jean-Éric Vergne	10 · 11	9 · 11	1 · 19	Daniel Ricciardo	Kept their order
Jean-Éric Vergne · Paul di Resta	11 · 15	11 · 10	19 · 13	Paul di Resta	Swapped places
Bruno Senna · Paul di Resta	14 · 15	16 · 10	1 · 13	Bruno Senna	Swapped places
Nico Rosberg · Jean-Éric Vergne	7 · 11	12 · 11	12 · 19	Nico Rosberg	Swapped places
Nico Rosberg · Pastor Maldonado	7 · 8	12 · 13	12 · 16	Nico Rosberg	Kept their order
Pastor Maldonado · Timo Glock	8 · 20	13 · 14	16 · 20	Pastor Maldonado	Kept their order
Timo Glock · Charles Pic	20 · 21	14 · 15	20 · 21	Timo Glock	Kept their order
Bruno Senna · Charles Pic	14 · 21	16 · 15	1 · 21	Bruno Senna	Swapped places

Pairs of classified drivers who started or finished next to each other, each with a stop recorded; the two names in a row are in grid order. Both are read from the stops F1DB records, which has gaps. It is the order things happened in and no more: with no lap times, the record cannot say whether stopping first won or lost a place.

Practice sessions Practice 1 · Practice 2 · Practice 3

Practice 1

Practice 1
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:27.560	—	0 m	—	11
2	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:27.805	+0.245	15 m	+0.245	14
3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:28.235	+0.675	41 m	+0.430	17
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:28.360	+0.800	48 m	+0.125	21
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:28.467	+0.907	55 m	+0.107	21
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:28.683	+1.123	68 m	+0.216	22
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:28.908	+1.348	82 m	+0.225	23
8	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:29.415	+1.855	112 m	+0.507	16
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:29.565	+2.005	121 m	+0.150	8
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:29.722	+2.162	131 m	+0.157	26
11	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:29.790	+2.230	135 m	+0.068	21
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:29.865	+2.305	140 m	+0.075	17
13	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:29.881	+2.321	141 m	+0.016	18
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:29.953	+2.393	145 m	+0.072	21
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:30.124	+2.564	155 m	+0.171	22
16	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:30.515	+2.955	179 m	+0.391	16
17	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:30.586	+3.026	183 m	+0.071	16
18	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:30.743	+3.183	193 m	+0.157	11
19	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:31.178	+3.618	219 m	+0.435	17
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:31.983	+4.423	268 m	+0.805	8
21	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:34.730	+7.170	434 m	+2.747	8
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:40.256	+12.696	769 m	+5.526	11
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	—	—	—	—	3

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 2

Practice 2
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:29.183	—	0 m	—	16
2	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:29.292	+0.109	6 m	+0.109	19
3	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:30.199	+1.016	60 m	+0.907	23
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:30.341	+1.158	69 m	+0.142	13
5	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:30.709	+1.526	91 m	+0.368	14
6	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:31.466	+2.283	136 m	+0.757	13
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:31.505	+2.322	138 m	+0.039	14
8	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:31.932	+2.749	163 m	+0.427	16
9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:32.184	+3.001	178 m	+0.252	17
10	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:32.194	+3.011	179 m	+0.010	19
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:32.296	+3.113	185 m	+0.102	20
12	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:32.632	+3.449	205 m	+0.336	17
13	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:32.767	+3.584	213 m	+0.135	15
14	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:32.822	+3.639	216 m	+0.055	11
15	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:33.039	+3.856	229 m	+0.217	18
16	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:33.252	+4.069	242 m	+0.213	11
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:34.108	+4.925	293 m	+0.856	21
18	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:34.275	+5.092	303 m	+0.167	7
19	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:34.312	+5.129	305 m	+0.037	17
20	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:34.485	+5.302	315 m	+0.173	29
21	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:34.604	+5.421	322 m	+0.119	31
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:34.770	+5.587	332 m	+0.166	13
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:42.627	+13.444	799 m	+7.857	16
24	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	—	—	—	—	1

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 3

Practice 3
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:25.681	—	0 m	—	18
2	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:25.758	+0.077	5 m	+0.077	21
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:25.900	+0.219	14 m	+0.142	20
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:25.906	+0.225	14 m	+0.006	17
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:25.929	+0.248	15 m	+0.023	23
6	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:26.078	+0.397	25 m	+0.149	14
7	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:26.211	+0.530	33 m	+0.133	12
8	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:26.470	+0.789	49 m	+0.259	17
9	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:26.632	+0.951	59 m	+0.162	20
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:26.723	+1.042	64 m	+0.091	17
11	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:26.733	+1.052	65 m	+0.010	15
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:26.737	+1.056	65 m	+0.004	19
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:26.755	+1.074	66 m	+0.018	21
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:27.029	+1.348	83 m	+0.274	23
15	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:27.119	+1.438	89 m	+0.090	20
16	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:27.323	+1.642	102 m	+0.204	19
17	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:27.428	+1.747	108 m	+0.105	22
18	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:28.023	+2.342	145 m	+0.595	19
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:28.341	+2.660	165 m	+0.318	19
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:28.702	+3.021	187 m	+0.361	11
21	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:30.728	+5.047	312 m	+2.026	13
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:31.225	+5.544	343 m	+0.497	14
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:33.114	+7.433	460 m	+1.889	12
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:33.261	+7.580	469 m	+0.147	13

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Photographs from this race

Filed on Wikimedia Commons under this race's own category, each shown with the photographer and licence its terms require. The filing is the Commons editors' and has not been checked here.

6 more photographs

Everything filed under 2012 Australian Grand Prix on Wikimedia Commons

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

5 more photographs

Where this comes from

Round: 1 of 2012
Grand Prix: Australian Grand Prix
Dates: 18 Mar 2012
Layout raced: Original layout · 5.303 km · 16 turns
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: McLaren
Entrant: McLaren-Mercedes
Confidence: reference

The layout raced and its figures are this register’s, from its own sources; the figures under the race’s drawing are F1DB’s, and at some circuits the two disagree.