2019 Australian Grand Prix
| 2019 Australian Grand Prix | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 1 of 21 in the 2019 Formula One World Championship
| ||||
 Layout of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit | ||||
| Race details | ||||
| Date | 17 March 2019 | |||
| Official name | Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2019 | |||
| Location | Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia | |||
| Course | Temporary street circuit | |||
| Course length | 5.303 km (3.295 miles) | |||
| Distance | 58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 miles) | |||
| Pole position | ||||
| Driver | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:20.486 | |||
| Fastest lap | ||||
| Driver |
 Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | ||
| Time | 1:25.580 on lap 57 | |||
| Podium | ||||
| First | Mercedes | |||
| Second | Mercedes | |||
| Third | Red Bull Racing-Honda | |||
|
Lap leaders | ||||
The 2019 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2019)[1] is a Formula One motor race that was held on 17 March 2019 in Melbourne, Victoria. The race was contested over fifty-eight laps of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and was be the first round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship.[2] The race marks the eighty-third race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix—which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928—the twenty-fourth time the event will be held at the Albert Park circuit and the thirty-fifth time the Australian Grand Prix will form a part of the Formula One World Championship.[3]
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel entered the round as the defending race winner.[4] Lewis Hamilton entered the round as the defending World Drivers' Champion and his team, Mercedes, are the defending World Constructors' Champions.[5]
Report
Background
The Australian Grand Prix was officially confirmed as the first of twenty-one races of the 2019 Formula One World Championship at an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris in December 2018. The race is due to take place at the fifteen-turn, 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria on 17 March 2019.[2] Melbourne's Federation Square hosted a season launch event, the first of its kind for the sport, in the week before the race.[6]
Race Director Charlie Whiting died of a pulmonary embolism in the week before the race.[7][8] Deputy Race Director Michael Masi was named as Whiting's temporary successor—with local officials appointed to fill Whiting's additional roles—until a long-term appointment could be made ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.[9]
Entry list
Twenty drivers representing ten teams entered the race. Alfa Romeo Racing made their return to the sport, replacing the Sauber F1 Team as part of a sponsorship deal that started in 2018.[10] Racing Point also made their début as an independent constructor, having acquired the assets of Sahara Force India team and having competed under the Force India name in 2018.[11] Alexander Albon, Lando Norris and George Russell all made their competitive débuts.[12][13][14] Meanwhile Antonio Giovinazzi, Robert Kubica and Daniil Kvyat all returned to the championship.[15][16][17]
Tyres
Tyre supplier Pirelli provided teams with an intermediate range of tyres for the race.[20] Under rules introduced in 2019, Pirelli changed the designations of their tyres to rate the hardness of the compounds, with "C1" being the hardest and "C5" the softest.[21] The colour-coding system used in previous years was simplified so that the white-coloured tyre wall represents the hardest compound available at any Grand Prix, a yellow tyre wall the medium compound and the red tyre wall the softest tyre.[22] Pirelli nominated the C2 tyre as the white-banded hard compound, C3 as the yellow-banded medium and C4 as the red-banded soft.[23]
Points system change
The race saw the introduction of a change to the points system. The system in use since 2010 will be retained, but drivers who set the fastest lap could be awarded a bonus point provided that they finish the race inside the top ten. The bonus point is also awarded to the constructor of the driver that set the fastest lap as well.[24]
Practice
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in all three practice sessions. The sessions ran uninterrupted save for an incident that saw Alexander Albon spinning out at turn 2 and hitting the wall during the first practice session. Albon was able to return to the pits for repairs.[25][26][27] In the third practice session McLaren released Lando Norris into the path of Robert Kubica which resulted in the Mclaren team receiving a fine.[28]
Qualifying
The first qualifying session passed without incident until the final couple of minutes when Robert Kubica hit the wall coming out of turn 10 giving him a puncture, he later attrbuted this to a sudden increase in grip.[29] The drivers knocked out in Q1 and finishing qualifying in sixteenth to twentieth respectively were Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Robert Kubica with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest lap time of the session.[30] Gasly being knocked out came as a particular surprise and put his early exit down to unexpected track evolution.[31] Sainz was also disappointed with his early exit from qualifying, especially considering his team mate qualified in eighth, Sainz attributed his early exit to having to slow down after Kubica got a puncture in front of him forcing him to slow down on his qualifying lap.[32]
The second qualifying session passed without incident and resulted with Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniil Kvyat being knocked out and finishing quailing ranked eleventh to fifteenth respectively with Lewis Hamilton setting a qualifying lap record to end the session fastest.[30][33] The surprises came from the two Renault's of Ricciardo and Hülkenberg being knocked out after being considered as the fourth fastest team following pre season testing and from Lando Norris getting in to the top ten.[34][35][36]
For the third qualifying session all of the teams were able to have two attempts to set the fastest time, after the first run it was Valtteri Bottas who was leading having beaten the qualifying lap record which Hamilton had set in Q2, he was followed by Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.[33] During the second attempt in Q3 Hamilton improved his time by half a second to beat Bottas' lap record.[33] As no one else improved their time sufficiently to beat any of top three it has Lewis Hamilton who took pole position followed by Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel completing the top three.[30] The top ten was completed by Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Lando Norris, Kimi Räikkönen and Sergio Pérez. In his post qualifying interview Leclerc confessed that he wasn't happy with his performance in saying that he thought he was able to get into the top three but was unable to due to a untidy lap.[37] Meanwhile Haas said they were delighted with their performance getting their cars into sixth and seventh positions.[38]
Race
Valtteri Bottas started the race well from second place, and had the lead going into turn one. Further back, Daniel Ricciardo was contesting a position with Sergio Perez, in which he miscalculated his distance from some grass near to the right side of the track, driving over it. His front wing dug into the grass and fell apart in a rather spectacular fashion, spilling debris around that part of the track and causing him a rapid loss of position. Max Verstappen was passed by Charles Leclerc who then proceeded to battle his teammate. Sebastian Vettel kept Leclerc at bay in 4th. The Haas teammates Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean exchanged positions before Robert Kubica came into the pits on lap 6 after sustaining front wing damage. On lap 11, Carlos Sainz pulled over in his McLaren at the entrance to the pits, with a large plume of smoke emerging from the rear of his car, followed by some fire. Raikkonen pitted on lap 13 and Pierre Gasly struggled to make progress from P17, moving up only to P12. Nico Hulkenburg and Sergio Perez pulled into the pits in search of an undercut, followed by Sebastian Vettel who put on medium tyres. Lewis Hamilton pitted a lap later onto the same tyre compound, and he emerged ahead of Vettel. Romain Grosjean then pitted but an issue on the front left tyre caused him to lose three positions. Vettel set the fastest lap on lap 18 and Antonio Giovinazzi went wide on the approach to turn 13, allowing Kevin Magnussen to pass through. Bottas then sets the fastest lap on lap 21 and he then pits on lap 23. Verstappen followed three laps later as Lando Norris passes Giovinazzi the following lap. Charles Leclerc pitted from second place on lap 29 and Daniel Ricciardo was retired from the race by his team as a precaution following the lap 1 incident. Verstappen passed Vettel on lap 31 as Grosjean pulled over on to the run off area on the penultimate corner, with his front left wheel sliding around. Daniil Kvyat trying to pass Lance Stroll went wide at turn 3 on lap 38 and Verstappen went wide eleven laps later. On lap 55, Verstappen takes the fastest lap of the race as he nears closer to Lewis Hamilton in second. Bottas retakes the fastest lap and wins the race with a gap of 20.886 seconds to his teammate. Hamilton came in second, followed by Verstappen in third and the two Ferraris trailing in fourth and fifth.
Classification
Qualifying
| Pos. | Car no. |
Driver | Constructor | Qualifying times | Final grid | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:22.043 | 1:21.014 | 1:20.486 | 1 |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:22.367 | 1:21.193 | 1:20.598 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.885 | 1:21.912 | 1:21.190 | 3 |
| 4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-Honda | 1:22.876 | 1:21.678 | 1:21.320 | 4 |
| 5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:22.017 | 1:21.739 | 1:21.442 | 5 |
| 6 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1:22.959 | 1:21.870 | 1:21.826 | 6 |
| 7 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1:22.519 | 1:22.221 | 1:22.099 | 7 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1:22.702 | 1:22.423 | 1:22.304 | 8 |
| 9 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari | 1:22.966 | 1:22.349 | 1:22.314 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Racing Point-BWT Mercedes | 1:22.908 | 1:22.532 | 1:22.781 | 10 |
| 11 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:22.540 | 1:22.562 | 11 | |
| 12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:22.921 | 1:22.570 | 12 | |
| 13 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda | 1:22.757 | 1:22.636 | 13 | |
| 14 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari | 1:22.431 | 1:22.714 | 14 | |
| 15 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda | 1:22.511 | 1:22.774 | 15 | |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-BWT Mercedes | 1:23.017 | 16 | ||
| 17 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull Racing-Honda | 1:23.020 | 17 | ||
| 18 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren-Renault | 1:23.084 | 18 | ||
| 19 | 63 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1:24.360 | 19 | ||
| 20 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams-Mercedes | 1:26.067 | 20 | ||
| 107% time: 1:27.758 | |||||||
| Source:[30] | |||||||
Race
- Notes
- 1 — One point is awarded each for the driver and constructor that set the fastest lap.
Championship standings after the race
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also
References
- ^ "Australia". formula1.com. Formula One World Championship Limited. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ a b Noble, Jonathan (31 August 2018). "2019 Formula 1 calendar revealed with 21 races scheduled". autosport.com. Motorsport Network. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
- ^ "Grands Prix Australia • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
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{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Benson, Andrew (28 October 2018). "Lewis Hamilton equals Juan Manuel Fangio with fifth F1 title". bbc.com. BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ Herrero, Dan (30 January 2019). "Federation Square to host first Formula 1 season launch". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ "FIA Statement - Charlie Whiting". fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ "Charlie Whiting: F1 race director dies aged 66 on eve of season-opener in Melbourne". BBC Sport. BBC. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ Howard, Tom; Coch, Mat (14 March 2019). "Australian Michael Masi appointed F1 race director". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
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- ^ Collantine, Keith (25 September 2018). "Giovinazzi will replace Ericsson at Sauber in 2019". racefans.net. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ "Robert Kubica: Polish driver to make F1 comeback with Williams in 2019". bbc.co.uk. BBC Sport. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ "Daniil Kvyat to return to Toro Rosso for 2019 season". formula1.com. 29 September 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
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- ^ "2019 Australian Grand Prix – Entry List". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; 14 March 2019 suggested (help); Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Herrero, Daniel (6 March 2019). "F1 teams' tyre picks for Australian Grand Prix revealed". speedcafe.com. Speedcafe. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
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{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Australian Grand Prix 2019 FP2 report: FP2: Hamilton heads Bottas as Mercedes go clear of the field | Formula 1®". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b c 2019 Australian Grand Prix: Qualifying Highlights, 16 March 2019, retrieved 16 March 2019
- ^ "Australian Grand Prix qualifying 2019: 'Renault will sneak into the points' predicts Daniel Ricciardo despite Q2 exit". www.formula1.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
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- ^ a b "Australia 2019 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.