The Australian Grand Prix 2019 was the 1st round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Australia, on March 17th.
Valtteri Bottas won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Max Verstappen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 22 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 12-15: 9 stops
- Laps 25-28: 7 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 21.157 seconds during his pit stop on lap 25, while the slowest one was was Daniel Ricciardo's, who stopped the clock at 33.027 seconds, 11.870 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 1.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only 1 driver tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Valtteri Bottas, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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7Daniel Ricciardo
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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4Nico Hülkenberg
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3Sergio Pérez
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Kevin Magnussen
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1Alexander Albon
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1Lewis Hamilton
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12Romain Grosjean
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4Lando Norris
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1Valtteri Bottas
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1Max Verstappen
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5Daniil Kvyat
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7Lance Stroll
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1Antonio Giovinazzi
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-Charles Leclerc
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6Pierre Gasly
2 stops
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3George Russell
3 stops
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3Robert Kubica
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Romain Grosjean, who had a wheel problem on lap 29, Daniel Ricciardo, who had took damage to the car on lap 28, and Carlos Sainz, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 9.
Wheel
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Romain GrosjeanLap 29
Damage
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Daniel RicciardoLap 28
Engine
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Carlos SainzLap 9
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.112 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:20.486. Valtteri Bottas was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 12 out of the 15 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.