The United States Grand Prix 2019 was the 19th round of the 2019 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, USA, on November 3rd.
Valtteri Bottas won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 33 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 17-21: 10 stops
- Laps 23-24: 4 stops
- Laps 39-40: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Alexander Albon's, stopping the clock at 23.213 seconds during his pit stop on lap 20, while the slowest one was was Alexander Albon's, who stopped the clock at 34.100 seconds, 10.887 seconds slower than Albon, 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
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only 6 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Valtteri Bottas, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
-Robert Kubica
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1Carlos Sainz
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3Daniel Ricciardo
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3Lewis Hamilton
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-Romain Grosjean
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10Sergio Pérez
2 stops
-
1Lance Stroll
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-Max Verstappen
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-Valtteri Bottas
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2Antonio Giovinazzi
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6Kimi Räikkönen
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6Kevin Magnussen
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6Pierre Gasly
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1Lando Norris
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-Charles Leclerc
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1Daniil Kvyat
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1George Russell
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2Nico Hülkenberg
3 stops
-
1Alexander Albon
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.4 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1 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 of the Americas, 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, and Sebastian Vettel, both suffered a suspension problem, Kevin Magnussen, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 52, and Robert Kubica, who had an oil leak on lap 31.
Suspension
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Pierre GaslyLap 54
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Sebastian VettelLap 7
Brakes
-
Kevin MagnussenLap 52
Oil leak
-
Robert KubicaLap 31
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas managed to get the pole position by 0.012 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:32.029. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 11 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.