The Russian Grand Prix 2019 was the 16th round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia, on September 29th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Charles Leclerc, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 25 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-2: 4 stops
- Laps 20-23: 4 stops
- Laps 26-30: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Kimi Räikkönen's, stopping the clock at 25.038 seconds during his pit stop on lap 9, while the slowest one was was Antonio Giovinazzi's, who stopped the clock at 38.193 seconds, 13.155 seconds slower than Räikkönen, during his pit stop on lap 2.
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 Robert Kubica, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Hülkenberg, Charles Leclerc and Daniil Kvyat decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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9Daniel Ricciardo
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1Lando Norris
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1Carlos Sainz
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4Sergio Pérez
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15Sebastian Vettel
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2Pierre Gasly
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4Kevin Magnussen
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3Lance Stroll
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-George Russell
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1Lewis Hamilton
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2Valtteri Bottas
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5Max Verstappen
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5Alexander Albon
2 stops
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2Robert Kubica
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3Antonio Giovinazzi
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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4Nico Hülkenberg
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2Charles Leclerc
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7Daniil Kvyat
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.4 positions on average, while those on a 2 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 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 Sochi Autodrom, 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 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Robert Kubica, and George Russell, both saw the breaks of the car give up, Sebastian Vettel, who suffered a power loss on lap 26, and Daniel Ricciardo, and Romain Grosjean, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Brakes
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Robert KubicaLap 28
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George RussellLap 27
Power loss
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Sebastian VettelLap 26
Collision
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Daniel RicciardoLap 24
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Romain GrosjeanLap 0
Qualifying
Charles Leclerc managed to get the pole position by 0.402 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:31.628. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lewis Hamilton.
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.