The 2013 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 17 March 2013 as the opening round of the 2013 World Championship. The race was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. It was the 78th race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix – which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928 – and the 18th time the event has been held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. The race was won by Kimi Räikkönen with Fernando Alonso coming second and Sebastian Vettel coming third.
This was the last time a Formula One race was won by a driver from a team other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull, until Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix driving for Scuderia AlphaTauri, 147 races later.
It was also Kimi Räikkönen's last race victory until the 2018 United States Grand Prix, and also the last win for a Finnish driver until Valtteri Bottas, who made his debut in this race, won the 2017 Russian Grand Prix.
Report
Background
Following the collapse of HRT F1 in December 2012, the grid for the season was reduced to twenty-two entries, necessitating changes to the structure of qualifying. The three-round knockout system introduced in remained in place, but only six cars, instead of seven, were eliminated during the first period of qualifying, with six more eliminated at the end of the second period. The third qualifying period remains unchanged with the ten fastest drivers all advancing to the final ten minutes of qualifying.
During the winter off-season, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile introduced new rules restricting the use of the Drag Reduction System during free practice and qualifying, limiting its use to the circuit's designated DRS zones. However, during Friday practice, the race stewards encountered a technical glitch in the telemetry system that controlled the availability of DRS, meaning that the system would be completely unrestricted. This forced the stewards to rely on drivers to use the system honestly, threatening penalties to any driver caught using DRS outside the designated areas. The same error meant that the stewards would be unable to notify drivers via telemetry of warning flags, instead relying on marshalls around the circuit to display them and teams to warn drivers up upcoming flags during the race.
Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with the super-soft and medium compound tyres for the race, compared to the soft and medium selection offered in 2012.
Qualifying
Q1
Prior to the first qualifying session of the season, Melbourne had experienced a record heatwave and no rain for almost the entire month of March. These dry conditions, however, did not prevail with precipitation occurring over free practice, turning into heavy rainfalls just before qualifying. After an initial thirty-minute postponement from the official 17:00 (local time) start, the first session of qualifying eventually started and was held in wet conditions with all drivers on wet tyres. Conditions were tricky, resulting in some drivers taking off-field excursions. Lewis Hamilton lost control of his car during turn 2 and slid into the wall. He was able to reverse back onto the circuit and continue, albeit with minor damage to his rear wing. Felipe Massa also spun into the wall after turn 14, escaping with only a broken front wing. As the track dried out, however, drivers switched to intermediate tyres and lap times began dropping for over the remainder of the session. Esteban Gutiérrez spun at the same place as Massa had previously, stalling the engine. The incident ended his qualifying session and prejudiced the lap times of others drivers.
At the end of Q1, six drivers were eliminated. Pastor Maldonado qualified seventeenth after going off the circuit, whilst Gutiérrez's crash meant that the Mexican was unable to continue and was subsequently eliminated in eighteenth place. Marussia's Jules Bianchi (on his Formula One debut) and Max Chilton qualified nineteenth and twentieth respectively, ahead of the Caterhams of Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic. The latter failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest time, set by Nico Rosberg, meaning his participation in the race depended on dispensation from the race stewards.