The British Grand Prix 2019 was the 10th round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on July 14th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Valtteri Bottas, who originally had the pole position, and Charles Leclerc completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 29 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 12-13: 9 stops
- Laps 20-21: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 27.827 seconds during his pit stop on lap 13, while the slowest one was was Sebastian Vettel's, who stopped the clock at 38.468 seconds, 10.641 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 38.
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
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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5Romain Grosjean
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4Kevin Magnussen
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1Pierre Gasly
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-Nico Hülkenberg
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3Alexander Albon
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4Kimi Räikkönen
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1Lewis Hamilton
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5Robert Kubica
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7Carlos Sainz
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5George Russell
2 stops
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
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8Daniil Kvyat
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1Max Verstappen
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5Lance Stroll
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-Charles Leclerc
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3Lando Norris
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1Valtteri Bottas
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10Sebastian Vettel
3 stops
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2Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.5 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.25 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Silverstone 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, Antonio Giovinazzi, who lost control and spun off the track on lap 18, and Romain Grosjean, and Kevin Magnussen, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Spun off
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Antonio GiovinazziLap 18
Collision
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Romain GrosjeanLap 9
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Kevin MagnussenLap 6
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas managed to get the pole position by 0.006 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.093. 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 6 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.