The Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2019 was the 4th round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on April 28th.
Valtteri Bottas won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 26 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 5-14: 16 stops
The fastest pit stop was Robert Kubica's, stopping the clock at 15.069 seconds during his pit stop on lap 14, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 23.099 seconds, 8.030 seconds slower than Kubica, during his pit stop on lap 10.
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 5 drivers 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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13Daniil Kvyat
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10Kimi Räikkönen
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5Antonio Giovinazzi
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1Sergio Pérez
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10Daniel Ricciardo
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4Lance Stroll
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-Sebastian Vettel
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-Valtteri Bottas
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2Carlos Sainz
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-Alexander Albon
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
-Max Verstappen
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4Romain Grosjean
2 stops
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1Kevin Magnussen
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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1Lando Norris
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1George Russell
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3Charles Leclerc
3 stops
-
16Robert Kubica
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.6 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 16 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option, even if Valtteri Bottas managed to win the race making 1 stop.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Baku City Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Pierre Gasly, who had a transmission problem on lap 38, Romain Grosjean, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 38, and Daniil Kvyat, and Daniel Ricciardo, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Transmission
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Pierre GaslyLap 38
Brakes
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Romain GrosjeanLap 38
Collision
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Daniil KvyatLap 33
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Daniel RicciardoLap 31
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas managed to get the pole position by 0.059 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:40.495. Lewis Hamilton 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 8 out of the 13 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 7 out of the 8 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.