2016 Australian Grand Prix

The 2016 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 20 March 2016 in Melbourne. The race was contested over fifty-seven laps of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and was the first round of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race marked the 81st race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix – which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928 – and the 21st time the event was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the race winner.

Lewis Hamilton took the first pole position of the season and the fiftieth of his career in a qualifying session that saw the introduction of a new one-by-one elimination format that was widely criticised. His teammate Nico Rosberg took victory ahead of Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. The race was stopped on lap 18 following an accident involving Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutiérrez. Mercedes used the break for a change of tyres that allowed their drivers to take a 1–2 finish after Vettel had initially led the race from the start. Romain Grosjean finished sixth, scoring points for the Haas F1 team on their début, the first completely new team to do so since 2002. Mercedes equalled the record for most consecutive 1–2 finishes, by achieving their fifth in a row.

The race saw the introduction of a new qualifying system. As before, qualifying was divided into three parts. However, instead of eliminating the slowest drivers at the end of each respective session, the slowest driver at a given point was now eliminated from contention every ninety seconds, with the countdown starting some minutes into every session.

In a further change of regulations, tyre supplier Pirelli now made three instead of two tyre compounds available for each Grand Prix. For the Australian Grand Prix, these were the super-soft, soft and medium compounds. With Pirelli providing every driver with two sets of tyres for the race (of which one must be used) and an additional one for the third part of qualifying, drivers were able to choose ten additional sets of tyres out of the three compounds available. Notably, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made different choices, with Rosberg opting for an additional set of mediums instead of soft tyres. The two Manor drivers chose the most conservative way, taking on four sets each of the medium and soft compounds.

The race saw the competitive début of the Haas F1 Team, and its car, the Haas VF-16; and the return of Renault as a fully manufacturer-supported team after a four-year absence.

Per the regulations for the 2016 season, three practice sessions were held, two 1.5-hour sessions on Friday and another one-hour session before qualifying on Saturday. Rain had fallen before the start of the first practice session, rendering the track wet and slippery, and drivers initially opted to go on their first laps on intermediate tyres. Nico Rosberg was the first to set a lap time, clocking in at 1:44.037, a time soon bettered by his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at 1:40.812. As conditions improved further, Kimi Räikkönen set a new fastest time after about half an hour of practice. Soon after, the track had dried enough for the drivers to go out on slick tyres, with Daniel Ricciardo setting the first time on the medium compound with 1:34.007. After around one hour of practice, Hamilton managed the best time of the session, at 1:29.725. Still, several wet spots on the track caused problems to a number of drivers, including Max Verstappen, who flat-spotted his tyres while spinning in turn six, as well as Valtteri Bottas and Rio Haryanto, who both had to pass through the gravel traps after slipping off the track. Shortly before the end of the session, rain returned and caught out many drivers, including Räikkönen and Ricciardo, whose Red Bull RB12 got stuck in a gravel pit at turn twelve.

Due to several rain showers between first and second practice, the track was again wet during the second session, which limited the drivers to using the intermediate tyres only. Hamilton was again fastest, setting a time of 1:38.841. Teammate Rosberg crashed at turn seven thirty minutes into the session, damaging a new-specification front wing that the team had deliberately not run in first practice for fear of damage. Rosberg later apologised for the incident, which saw him trying to get back to pit lane, before his team told him to stop on track, calling an early end to his session. Nico Hülkenberg, Räikkönen, Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr. all finished within one second of Hamilton's time, while Sergio Pérez was at one point on his way to a new fastest time overall, setting best times in the first two timechecks along the track, before having to slow in the last part of the lap due to heavy rain. The two Manor drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Haryanto covered the highest number of laps, with 24 and 22 laps in 12th and 14th place respectively. Neither Renault nor Williams drivers set a time, albeit going on track. The Sauber cars and Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso did not leave the garage at all during the session.

Although rain fell on Saturday morning, the track had dried by the start of the final free practice session. Lewis Hamilton again set the fastest time with 1:25.624, less than two-tenths of a second in front of teammate Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel in third position close behind. The fastest times had been set on the super-soft tyre compound. However, Mercedes's advantage over Ferrari proved more significant, up to seven-tenths of a second on the harder soft compound, the tyre most likely to be used in the race. Toro Rosso confirmed their good pace for the weekend with fourth and sixth place for Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen respectively, being about half a second quicker than their sister team, Red Bull Racing. A major incident occurred just seconds after the beginning of the practice session, when Rio Haryanto and Romain Grosjean collided in the pit lane. Both cars needed to equip new front wings and Haas also changed the floor on Grosjean's car. Haryanto was later issued a three-place grid penalty for the incident, as well as two penalty points added to his licence.