Australian Grand Prix (2013) RESULT

A rain delayed qualifying ultimately saw a Red Bull front row for the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. Did the race see Red Bull follow on from 2012?

The start of the 2013 Grand Prix circus saw a rain-delayed qualifying in Melbourne, but when the clouds cleared and qualifying was completed it was Red Bull dominating – Vettel on pole, Webber alongside – with Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes taking third and the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso in fourth and fifth.

But the race start saw Lotus’s Kimi Raikonnen move from seventh on the grid up to fourth place in the opening laps in a move that proved to be just the start of a stunning drive – and a clever two-stop strategy – that saw him move in to the lead on the 23rd lap as other front runners – Alonso, Vettel and Massa – hit the pits for the second of their three stops.

Raikkonen lost the lead after his second pit stop as Alonso put in a set of very quick laps to take the front spot, but Raikkonen regained the lead when Alonso had to make his third stop, and came out behind Raikkonen, and drove to a convincing win for Lotus.

Sebastian Vettel ended up in third place – behind the Ferrari of Alonso – after the pace of the Red Bull fell short of that of the Ferrari and Lotus as he suffered tyre wear.

And it was tyre wear that was the undoing of an impressive Hamilton for his first time out with Mercedes. At one point he looked strong enough to compete for the win, but high tyre wear forced an unplanned third stop and he ended the race in a creditable fifth place behind the Ferrari of Massa.

Mark Webber managed to salvage sixth place behind Hamilton after a faulty ECU shut down his KERS and he got stuck behind a struggling Button in the unimpressive McLaren after his first pit stop, with Sutil putting his Fore India in seventh place after a good drive, just ahead of team mate Paul di Resta.

Jenson Button managed to drag his McLaren in to ninth place to at least be in the points and the second Lotus of Romain Grosjean took the final points place in tenth.

Could Lotus be the team to beat in 2013, usurping the struggling McLaren for a place in the top three?

By Cars UK