2018 F1 Australian GP qualifying – Top speed and best sector times

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set the highest top speeds at the end of each sector in qualifying for 2018 Australian GP in Melbourne while Force India’s drivers were fastest on the main straight speed trap – we bring a review of the best sector times and top speeds at the end of each sector.

ALBERT PARK CIRCUIT

MAXIMUM SPEEDS

The first column represents the speed measured on a speed trap near the end of the main straight (on the map marked with ‘330’), and the fastest drivers were Perez and Ocon in Force India with 323 km/h. Ferrari drivers Raikkonen and Vettel were the third and fourth fastest and the last ones to go faster than 320 km/h.

Lewis Hamilton was the fifth fastest although he had best time in the first sector by huge margin and gained most of his big advantage ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel in that sector.

The last two places in this column were taken by McLaren drivers Alonso and Vandoorne who were more than 10 km/h slower than the fastest drivers while Renault drivers Sainz and Hulkenberg were only slightly faster in the 17th and 18th place.

The second column represents the speed on the start finish line (T3 on the map) and the fastest were Raikkonen and Vettel. Hamilton was about 2.5km/h slower while the slowest drivers were around 7 km/h slower.

The third column is the speed at the end of the first sector (T1 on the map) and again the fastest were Ferrari drivers, 2 km/h ahead of Hamilton. The slowest drivers were from Toro Rosso Honda and McLaren.

The fourth column (T2) is the speed at the end of the second sector, and Vettel and Raikkonen have been the fastest again while Red Bull, McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso drivers were the slowest.

BEST SECTOR TIMES

Lewis Hamilton has set the best times in all three sectors, with the biggest advantage being in the first sector (around three tenths).

In the second sector, he was less than a tenth of a second faster than Vettel while in the third sectors Red Bull drivers and teammate Bottas were closest to his time.