2013 Australian Grand Prix

The 2013 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) is a Formula One motor race that was held on 17 March 2013 as the opening round of the 2013 championship. The race was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in the Albert Park suburb of Melbourne. 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.

Background
Following the collapse of HRT F1 in December 2012, the grid for the season was reduced to just twenty-two entries, necessitating changes to the structure of qualifying. The three-round knockout system first introduced in will remain in place, but only six cars—instead of seven—will be 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 the 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 penalites to any driver caught using DRS outside the designated areas. The same error meant that the stewards would be unable to warn drivers via telemetry of 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
The first session of qualifying was held in wet conditions, and after an initial postponement of twenty minutes, the session began with all drivers on wet tyres. The drivers found the conditions tricky, and as a result some drivers were forced to take 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 cosmetic 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, the drivers changed to intermediate tyres and the lap times began to tumble up until the very end. Esteban Gutiérrez spun at the same place as Massa had previously, stalling the engine and the accident ended his qualifying session, also scuppering the laps of many others.

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 and Max Chilton qualified ninteenth and twentieth respectively, ahead of the Caterhams of Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic, the latter of whom failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest time—set by Nico Rosberg—in the session, meaning his participating in the race depended on a dispensation from the race stewards

With debris from several accidents scattered across the track, the break between Q1 and Q2 was extended to allow marshalls to clean the circuit up. However, the rain intensified during the break between, forcing a prolonged postponment. With qualifying and the race being run late in the afternoon to accomodate European television audiences, twilight started approaching, and the stewards ultimately chose to abandon qualifying for the time being, rescheduling the final two sessions for Sunday morning.

Qualifying

 * Notes:
 * — Charles Pic failed to set a time within 107% of the fastest time in the session, but was allowed to start by the race stewards.

Championship standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Constructors' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.