The 2010 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 28 March 2010 at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the second round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship. McLaren driver Jenson Button won the 58-lap race starting from fourth position. Robert Kubica finished second for the Renault team and Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was third.
The victory was Button's first of the season; the result moved him to third place in the World Drivers' Championship, two points behind Massa and a further four adrift of Alonso. Hamilton dropped to fourth while Rosberg maintained fifth position. McLaren reduced the gap to Ferrari in the World Constructors' Championship to be sixteen points behind. Mercedes increased their hold on third place, while Renault's strong result allowed them to tie with Red Bull for fourth place, with seventeen races left in the season.
Background The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Lotus, Hispania and Virgin. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought four different tyre types to the race: two dry compounds (soft "options" and hard "primes) and wet-weather compounds (intermediates and full wet). The Soft compound was distinguished by a green stripe on the tyre's side-walls with the Wet compound tyre identified by a green line at the bottom of the tyre's central groove. As was the case for all of the 2010 Grands Prix, the rules stipulated that all cars should use both types of tyre during the course of the race unless the driver used any one of two wet-weather compounds. Each driver was limited to eleven sets of dry tyres for the weekend. The circuit organisers installed a new combination kerb on the turn nine apex and artificial grass along with kerbs were extended downstream on the exits of the second and twelfth turns.
Before the race Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso led the World Drivers' Championship with 25 points, ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa (18 points) and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton (15). Sebastian Vettel was fourth on twelve points and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was fifth on ten points. In the World Constructors' Championship Ferrari were leading with 43 points, twenty-two points ahead of their rival McLaren in second. Mercedes were in third place with 18 points with Red Bull a further two points adrift in fourth. Force India were in fifth on two points. Alonso had won the previous race in Bahrain with his team-mate Massa finishing second. Hamilton secured third place.
The reigning Drivers' Champion Jenson Button who had won the 2009 Australian Grand Prix was pleased to be returning to Albert Park and set himself the target of finishing on the podium. After losing victory in Bahrain because of a faulty spark plug, Vettel was certain that Red Bull could challenge for the victory in Australia: "I think, coming out of Bahrain, we have a very good car. There is no reason why we shouldn't be competitive here." Vettel's teammate Mark Webber who was entering his ninth Australian Grand Prix said: "It would be a beautiful feeling to win your home race, I don't think there's any driver who wouldn't like to have a chance to win their own Grand Prix." Webber also denied a suggestion by Hamilton that he would retire after the end of the season if he won the championship. Hamilton predicted that he would encounter less problems than in Bahrain and hoped he would have a good result in Melbourne.An issue concerning the start time of the race reemerged from the previous year. The start time was moved later in the day to allow European audiences to not get up early to view the event on television but it courted controversy as visibility was poor and it was retained for 2010. Lotus driver Jarno Trulli suggested the race should be started one hour earlier, while Webber, the Grand Prix Drivers' Association director, said the reason was due to commercial pressure. Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Virgin Racing were granted permission from Formula One's governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to change the size of their car's fuel tanks because their capacity was not large enough for their drivers to complete a Grand Prix at full speed; the chassis would not be ready until the Spanish Grand Prix on 9 May. McLaren had to modify the opening of their diffusers following a rule clarification from the FIA. The team was also requested by the stewards in Bahrain to change the configuration of their front wing end-plates to a safer rounded shape for Australia. Sauber became the first team to introduce their version of McLaren's F-duct system though the air was directed onto the main section of the body wing and the F-duct itself was positioned on the car's sidepods.
Practice
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and a third on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour. Before the practice sessions, the pit lane speed limit was lowered from to after a request was made from race director Charlie Whiting on safety grounds. In the first practice session which was held in dry weather conditions, Robert Kubica set the fastest time early in the session with a lap of 1:26.927, almost two-tenths of a second faster than Rosberg. Button was third-fastest, ahead of Massa and Vettel. Alonso, Hamilton, Sébastien Buemi, Vitaly Petrov and Vitantonio Liuzzi rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi caused the session to be suspended after forty minutes when he ran over a cone on the inside of turn eleven which tore off half his front wing and ran wide into the turn twelve gravel trap. A second suspension was caused after Kobayashi's second front wing broke off going into the third corner and debris was scattered across the circuit.
In the second practice session which was marked by intermittent rain showers, Hamilton recorded the fastest lap of the day, a 1:25.801; his teammate Button was second quickest and battled his teammate for quickest lap-time. Webber was third fastest, ahead of Michael Schumacher as both drivers took advantage of a drying track. Petrov and Buemi were fifth and sixth. Adrian Sutil, Liuzzi, Rubens Barrichello and Rosberg rounded out the top ten. Vettel lost control of the rear of his car and beached it in the turn six gravel trap in the final three minutes of the session. In the final practice session where traffic was heavy, Webber set the fastest lap of the weekend so far with a lap time of 1:24.719 which was set during the session's closing minutes. Alonso (who was fastest for four minutes of the session after making changes to his rear suspension and front ride height) was two-tenths of a second slower in second. Schumacher set the fastest time in the first sector to record the third fastest time. He was followed by Vettel and Rosberg. McLaren teammates Button and Hamilton were sixth and seventh. Sutil, Massa and Liuzzi completed the top ten ahead of qualifying and were within one second off Webber's pace.
Qualifying
The qualifying session held on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 18th or lower. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions eleven to 17. The final session ran for ten minutes and determined pole position to tenth. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to change tyres before the race, and as such started the race on the tyres that they set their quickest lap on. The session was held in overcast conditions; the air and track temperature was . Vettel set the fastest time in all three sessions and achieved his second consecutive pole position of the season and his first at Albert Park with a time of 1:23.919 despite running wide after exiting a corner on his pole lap. He was joined on the front row of the grid by teammate Webber who set a lap time 0.116 seconds off Vettel's pace and lost the chance to take pole in the third session's closing minutes after he lost time in the middle sector but was quickest in the first and final sectors. Alonso set a time of 1:24.111 to start from third place on the grid and was pleased on how qualifying went for himself. Button lacked grip and had excessive oversteer which caused him to lose time and set the fourth quickest lap but was happy with the package of his car. Massa struggled with getting his tyres up to the optimum temperature causing him to have no grip but managed to qualify fifth. The two Mercedes drivers used the soft compound tyres but only managed sixth and seventh positions with Rosberg ahead of Schumacher; Rosberg was disappointed after he made mistakes on his final run which cost him time while Schumacher also used the hard compound tyre and was caught up in traffic. Barrichello took eighth and believed he could have set a faster lap because he encountered traffic during the third session. Kubica pushed hard during the session as his car was not easy to drive and managed ninth. Sutil rounded out the top ten but believed he could have done better as he struggled to get his soft compound tyres up to temperature after doing two runs in the third session.
Hamilton, who qualified eleventh, was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session. His best time of 1:25.184 was nearly 1.1 seconds slower than Vettel's pace in the second session. He was held up by traffic during the first run of the second session which meant he made an early pit stop for new tyres and to have a clear track. However Hamilton struggled with finding time in the final sector of the track. Buemi took twelfth, with Liuzzi in thirteenth; the latter encountered a large amount of traffic in the final sector of the circuit despite going faster in the first two sectors. Pedro de la Rosa pushed hard in qualifying to take 14th position with Nico Hülkenberg in the slower Williams 15th. Kobayashi took 16th and Jaime Alguersuari started from 17th position. Vitaly Petrov failed to move beyond the first qualifying session; the Renault driver qualified in 18th as he felt his car was not balanced correctly which meant he was unable to set good sector times on his final run. He also backed off in the final corners on his penultimate run of the session. The Lotus cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Trulli lined up in 19th and 20th respectively, with Trulli experiencing a problem with his seat which caused it to bounce in his car. Virgin Racing drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi lined up in the eleventh row of the grid, with Hispania drivers Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok qualifying on the final two positions on the grid in 23rd and 24th.
Qualifying classification The fastest lap in each of the three sessions is denoted in bold.