The Spanish Grand Prix 2019 was the 5th round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 12th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Valtteri Bottas, who originally had the pole position, and Max Verstappen 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 19-28: 16 stops
- Laps 43-46: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Carlos Sainz's, stopping the clock at 21.468 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Alexander Albon's, who stopped the clock at 37.345 seconds, 15.877 seconds slower than Sainz, during his pit stop on lap 45.
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 2 stops. Only Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Nico Hülkenberg decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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3Lance Stroll
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10Lando Norris
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13Nico Hülkenberg
2 stops
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2Antonio Giovinazzi
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Max Verstappen
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-Daniil Kvyat
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-Pierre Gasly
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1Kevin Magnussen
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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4Carlos Sainz
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-Sergio Pérez
-
-Charles Leclerc
-
-Alexander Albon
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1Valtteri Bottas
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3Romain Grosjean
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1Lewis Hamilton
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-Kimi Räikkönen
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1Robert Kubica
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2George Russell
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 13 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.35 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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Collision
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Lance StrollLap 44
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Lando NorrisLap 44
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.634 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:15.406. 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.