The Chinese Grand Prix 2019 was the 3rd round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 14th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Valtteri Bottas, who originally had the pole position, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 37 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 7-9: 4 stops
- Laps 17-22: 12 stops
- Laps 33-36: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Daniil Kvyat's, stopping the clock at 17.257 seconds during his pit stop on lap 7, while the slowest one was was Lando Norris's, who stopped the clock at 50.738 seconds, 33.481 seconds slower than Kvyat, 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
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 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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12Nico Hülkenberg
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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10Alexander Albon
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4Sergio Pérez
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4Kimi Räikkönen
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1Robert Kubica
2 stops
-
-Carlos Sainz
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4Antonio Giovinazzi
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1Romain Grosjean
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4Kevin Magnussen
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1Max Verstappen
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-Sebastian Vettel
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4Lance Stroll
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1Valtteri Bottas
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1Lewis Hamilton
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1Charles Leclerc
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1George Russell
3 stops
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3Lando Norris
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8Daniil Kvyat
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-Pierre Gasly
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.2 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.36 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average.
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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Shanghai International 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, Lando Norris, and Daniil Kvyat, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Nico Hülkenberg, who had a power unit failure on lap 16.
Collision
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Lando NorrisLap 50
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Daniil KvyatLap 41
Power Unit
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Nico HülkenbergLap 16
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas managed to get the pole position by 0.023 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:31.547. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel in third position, and Charles Leclerc in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Red Bulls were right behind them, with Max Verstappen in fith position, and Pierre Gasly in sixth.
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 14 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.