2016 Australian Grand Prix significant person Daniel Ricciardo
Race
At the end of the formation lap, Daniil Kvyat was unable to reach the grid due to an electrical issue. Therefore, the field went to another formation lap and the race was shortened accordingly to 57 laps. At the start proper, Vettel got away well, passing through both Mercedes cars into the lead, followed by his teammate Räikkönen in second. As Rosberg and Hamilton went through the first corner, Hamilton was forced wide and lost additional places, falling down to sixth. Kevin Magnussen suffered a puncture on the first lap and made a pit stop for new tyres, while Esteban Gutiérrez had mechanical issues at the back of the field. Hamilton was able to pass fifth-placed Massa on lap four, as Vettel was leading from Räikkonen, Rosberg and Verstappen. On lap eight, Sainz was the first of the top-ten runners to pit for new tyres. Meanwhile, Hamilton was unable to pass Verstappen for fourth, discussing alternative tactics with his team on the radio communication. Pascal Wehrlein had a good start in his debut as well, running in 14th place at that point of the race.
On the end of lap eleven, Rosberg was the first front runner to go into the pitlane and Vettel followed suit just two laps later. A quicker stop by Rosberg saw Vettel emerge just in front of him, but the Ferrari stayed ahead and he passed Hamilton for second on lap 16. On the same lap, both Räikkönen and Hamilton made pit stops as well, re-establishing the order. One lap later, Fernando Alonso had a major accident as he ran into the back of Gutiérrez, being lifted into the air at 300 km/h (190 mph) and hitting the left-hand barrier before subsequently rolling over several times before coming to rest upside-down against the barrier at turn three, experiencing a peak force of 46G. While Alonso walked away with minor injuries, a safety car was deployed for a short time before the race direction decided to red flag the race due to the huge amounts of debris across the track from both Alonso's McLaren and damaged advertising boards, causing all cars to come back into pitlane.While the cars waited for the restart, work on the cars was allowed and Hamilton's front wing was changed, while Rio Haryanto ended his race. As the race resumed behind the safety car, both Ferrari drivers were running on the super-soft tyre compound, with both Mercedes now equipped with mediums, which were set to last for the rest of the race. The running order at the restart was: Vettel, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton, Massa, Grosjean, Bottas. Grosjean in ninth was the only driver who had not made a pit stop before the red flag was shown, which allowed him to save one pit stop and change his tyres during the break.Vettel led away at the restart, but his Ferrari teammate Räikkönen was forced to pull into the pit lane on lap 22 with fire coming from his airbox and subsequently retired, handing second place to Rosberg. Over the next couple of laps, Vettel was able to pull away from Rosberg on the softer tyre compound. Marcus Ericsson was handed a drive-through penalty for having his team work on his car less than 15 seconds before the restart. By lap 31, the gap between Vettel and Rosberg started to come down again, while Hamilton moved ahead of Sainz into fifth as the latter made a pit stop. Two laps later, Verstappen was in as well, but a slow pit stop lost him time. On lap 35, Rosberg took the lead as Vettel made a pit stop, who also lost time due to a mistake during his stop. He emerged back on track in fourth place. Hamilton now started to pull back time on the leaders, while debutant Palmer held off the two Toro Rosso drivers in a struggle for ninth place.
On lap 40, Ericsson started to slow on track and eventually retired. One lap later, Hamilton moved into second ahead of Ricciardo on the main straight. Lap 42 saw first Sainz and then Verstappen overtake Palmer's Renault, who fell back to eleventh. Another lap later, Ricciardo changed tyres and came out fifth behind Massa, taking fourth three laps later. At the front, Hamilton and Vettel slowly closed on Rosberg, with the gap between the two also coming down. Vettel came onto the back of Hamilton with five laps remaining, chasing him closely for several laps before making a mistake in the second to last corner of lap 55, losing his chances at second place.As the race ended, Nico Rosberg took victory, thirty-one years after his father Keke Rosberg had won the 1985 Australian Grand Prix.  Hamilton and Vettel rounded out the podium ahead of Ricciardo and Massa. With Romain Grosjean having finished in sixth, Haas F1 became the first new (and "from scratch") constructor since Toyota in 2002 to score points in its inaugural Grand Prix race entry. Behind Grosjean, Hülkenberg, Bottas, Sainz and Verstappen were the other point scorers. By finishing fourth, Daniel Ricciardo equalled the highest ever finish by an Australian driver at their home event, after Mark Webber did the same in 2012. It was Mercedes's fifth consecutive 1–2 finish, equalling a record set by Ferrari in 1952 and 2002 and by themselves in 2014.