Did the new point for fastest lap change the teams’ tactics in the Australian Grand Prix?
It did not, as some drivers suspected, lead to anyone making a late dash into the pits for fresh rubber, in order to have the best chance of setting a new fastest lap. But this was mostly down to circumstance. Few of the drivers in the top 10 places had enough of a lead over the next car to make a pit stop in the final laps without losing a position.
Max Verstappen did, but only in the final laps when Sebastian Vettel’s pace dropped off unexpectedly quickly. Charles Leclerc did too, but Ferrari decided not to pit him, a decision which might have come as a surprise to him as he suggested it was an obvious tactic.Romain Grosjean’s prediction that the point for fastest lap would prove to be “only for the top teams” was borne out. Only the leading drivers attempted to set the fastest lap of the race.
Among them was Lewis Hamilton, in a somewhat optimistic move given his tyres were eight lap older than those of race leader Valtteri Bottas. he dropped back to almost a full pit stop behind Bottas before making a few stabs at setting the quickest time.
Verstappen behind him did likewise, and like Hamilton also timed his big push for the penultimate lap. But it proved academic as Bottas was out ahead in a quicker car, and went half a second quicker than either of them.
Leclerc had a go too, after he dropped well back from his ailing team mate, who he was forbidden from passing. Showing how far off the pace Vettel was, Leclerc lapped almost four seconds quicker than he had gone before on the final tour, but to no avail. Bottas won the bonus and scored a maximum 26-point haul.
But if F1 ever decides to offer a point for fastest pit stop, Red Bull will be in great shape. Their pit stops for Verstappen and Pierre Gasly were the quickest of the race.
2019 Australian Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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Position change
Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 1 | -1 | -1 |
Valtteri Bottas | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 0 | -1 |
Charles Leclerc | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Max Verstappen | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Pierre Gasly | 17 | 0 | 6 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 12 | -8 | |
Nico Hulkenberg | 11 | 3 | 4 |
Romain Grosjean | 6 | -1 | |
Kevin Magnussen | 7 | 1 | 1 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 18 | 4 | |
Lando Norris | 8 | -2 | -4 |
Sergio Perez | 10 | -2 | -3 |
Lance Stroll | 16 | 3 | 7 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 9 | 0 | 1 |
Antonio Giovinazzi | 14 | -2 | -1 |
Daniil Kvyat | 15 | 0 | 5 |
Alexander Albon | 13 | 2 | -1 |
George Russell | 19 | 1 | 3 |
Robert Kubica | 20 | 1 | 3 |
2019 Australian Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2019 Australian Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2019 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’25.580 | 57 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’26.057 | 0.477 | 57 |
3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’26.256 | 0.676 | 57 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’26.926 | 1.346 | 58 |
5 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull-Honda | 1’27.229 | 1.649 | 39 |
6 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’27.448 | 1.868 | 39 |
7 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’27.568 | 1.988 | 29 |
8 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’27.954 | 2.374 | 16 |
9 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’28.182 | 2.602 | 56 |
10 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’28.188 | 2.608 | 43 |
11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’28.270 | 2.690 | 52 |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’28.444 | 2.864 | 52 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’28.462 | 2.882 | 17 |
14 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’28.479 | 2.899 | 29 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’28.485 | 2.905 | 41 |
16 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’28.555 | 2.975 | 17 |
17 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’28.713 | 3.133 | 55 |
18 | Robert Kubica | Williams-Mercedes | 1’29.284 | 3.704 | 30 |
19 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’29.848 | 4.268 | 18 |
20 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’30.899 | 5.319 | 9 |
2019 Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Valtteri Bottas | C4 (23) | C3 (35) | ||
Lewis Hamilton | C4 (15) | C3 (43) | ||
Max Verstappen | C4 (25) | C3 (33) | ||
Sebastian Vettel | C4 (14) | C3 (44) | ||
Charles Leclerc | C4 (28) | C2 (30) | ||
Kevin Magnussen | C4 (14) | C3 (44) | ||
Nico Hulkenberg | C4 (13) | C2 (44) | ||
Kimi Raikkonen | C4 (12) | C3 (45) | ||
Lance Stroll | C3 (27) | C2 (30) | ||
Daniil Kvyat | C3 (26) | C2 (31) | ||
Pierre Gasly | C3 (37) | C4 (20) | ||
Lando Norris | C4 (15) | C2 (42) | ||
Sergio Perez | C4 (13) | C2 (44) | ||
Alexander Albon | C4 (14) | C3 (43) | ||
Antonio Giovinazzi | C3 (27) | C4 (30) | ||
George Russell | C3 (26) | C4 (16) | C2 (14) | |
Robert Kubica | C2 (1) | C3 (27) | C4 (16) | C4 (11) |
Romain Grosjean | C4 (15) | C3 (14) | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | C4 (1) | C2 (27) | ||
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (9) |
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2019 Australian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 21.157 | 25 | |
2 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 21.269 | 0.112 | 37 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.515 | 0.358 | 15 |
4 | George Russell | Williams | 21.543 | 0.386 | 42 |
5 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 21.588 | 0.431 | 13 |
6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 21.627 | 0.470 | 15 |
7 | George Russell | Williams | 21.689 | 0.532 | 26 |
8 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | 21.780 | 0.623 | 14 |
9 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 21.889 | 0.732 | 44 |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.995 | 0.838 | 14 |
11 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.014 | 0.857 | 23 |
12 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.086 | 0.929 | 26 |
13 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 22.306 | 1.149 | 28 |
14 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 22.343 | 1.186 | 28 |
15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 22.388 | 1.231 | 14 |
16 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 22.471 | 1.314 | 27 |
17 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 23.234 | 2.077 | 13 |
18 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 23.299 | 2.142 | 12 |
19 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 27.172 | 6.015 | 27 |
20 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 29.981 | 8.824 | 15 |
21 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 32.997 | 11.840 | 1 |
22 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 33.027 | 11.870 | 1 |
Chaitanya
17th March 2019, 15:34
Lap times from Bottas are seriously impressive.
Alonso (@alonshow)
18th March 2019, 14:36
Seriously worrying, actually. Compare his fastest lap to the rest of his times and you’ll see that he spent the whole race cruising. Now do the same with Leclerc and you’ll see he was pushing like crazy for the whole race. Mercedes is MILES ahead.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
17th March 2019, 15:52
Why no comments about Kubica? Sorry to all, but I’ve not been a fan of his return to F1. Not just beaten by his team-mate, lapped by his team-mate.
edvaldo
17th March 2019, 18:33
Kubica had to pit on lap one together with Ricciardo. He started on the backfoot. Can’t be compared yet.
Renan Martinuzzo
17th March 2019, 19:10
If you look at Robert’s first stint comparing with Russell, you’ll see that his lap time averages were not that far from George, but his consistency was nowhere to be seen. I even looked at Daniel`s lap chart as he was the closest on track to Kubica at the first stint to see if the inconsistency was due to them being lapped, but Daniel’s laps were pretty damm good.
On the second stint, Kubica seemed to show a more stable performance, not too far of what Russel was doing.
But by the third and fourth sting, it seemed like both williams were all over the place compared to everyone else. George was doing better, but not by much.
Patrick Kebby (@pattheface)
18th March 2019, 8:22
He clashed with Gasly in the first corner which damaged his car and forced him to pit for a new nose. later on one of his mirrors fell off so he struggled with letting cars through for blue flags. Williams ran him on all tyre compounds, I guess they just used the race for test data as they were so far off the pace.
At the beginning of the weekend Kubica also said how they were very low on spare parts, so him and Russell were both avoiding kerbs as much as they could to avoid damage, that would have cost them lap time too.
Peter Chappell
18th March 2019, 12:52
Williams strategy is all wrong.
Why use the race as a test when you have had Friday and Saturday running ?
Why start on C3 tyres for the slowest phase of the race, the start and opening laps, when being so slow keeping up would be preferable by using the C4. If Leclerc managed C4 to lap 28, then Williams should have got to lap 30 and then used C3 to get to the finish. Rather than being left behind ?
What was the point fitting C2 for the last 14 laps ? Time lost at pit stop 21.5 seconds.
To Georges credit he then set a competitive time on lap 55 with the C2 tyres, so why not have fitted fresh C5’s and gone for a super fast lap time for some cudos, but not a point.
Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
17th March 2019, 19:23
What were Williams playing at with the 2-stop strategies?
bosyber (@bosyber)
17th March 2019, 20:35
Russell said they were just trying all types of tyre, implying they were effectively testing @leonardodicappucino
BlackJackFan
18th March 2019, 4:33
Hi Keith, why is your lap-chart upside-down…? The winner has always been at the top but, my problem is when a driver moves up a position your chart has him visibly dropping down. Graphically it isn’t logical… And a picture is worth a thousand words… ;-)
malc
18th March 2019, 8:38
Agree
Jason (@jmwalley)
18th March 2019, 19:14
This is similar to how F1.com shows their lap chart. My guess: it is dependent on how the data is received or input and the time required for Keith or someone to fix the data so #1 is at the top.
I’d love to know if it is an API or something or if FOM just provides some basic data for those with media credentials.
BlackJackFan
19th March 2019, 1:41
Interesting idea… I would have thought (I know logic doesn’t always come into play in such situations) that as the cars cross the line in order then the first placed guys would be entered first into the system. But it sure confuses me… Antique hard-wiring, I guess… ;-)
Nitzo (@webtel)
18th March 2019, 9:01
Some observations, comparisons and questions:
Vet//Lec—Both Ferraris were consistently slower than Valtteri throughout the race. No wonder that the gap was huge at the close. Sebastian’s early pit stop blunder is also very evident as Charles was consistently faster than Vettel after his stop. Perhaps they should have waited and let Vettel go the softs instead of the medium. The same inference can be obtained if we compare max and Vettel. Perhaps C3 wasn’t the best tire to be on.
Albon// Daniil: Albon was chasing/being chased upon for a goof amount of time. Still, he seems to have lost a lot of time in his contests for position. Once again, the decision to pit late helped Daniil.
Max//gasly//Daniil: its amazing how closely matched the times of Pierre and Daniil are even though both started with the same tire. Multiple inferences can be drawn here. After his pit stop, Gasly on the soft tire was still only matching Daniil on the Hard compound. Shocking to say the least. Wonder whether STR are so good because of aggressive engine mapping?! All throughout the race max was consistently faster than Pierre. Was he carrying damage?
Gio//Kimi—Antonio on the softer tire was still only matching Kimi who was on the medium in the latter half of the race. I don’t think he was in a chase/being chased. First race (of the season) blues perhaps?
Lastly, Kimi//Nico//Kevin—Absolutely packed midfield as expected !!
Patch81
19th March 2019, 5:22
Looking at the lap times and the gaps, I get the impression taht Kimi could have pulled away from the Renaults and Haas if he had qualified better. He stayed on their tail for the whole race which normally indicates a slightly faster car as tyre degradation is normally worse for cars following. In my experience watching for so many years, if you are evenly matched, normally the car in front pulls away if he can resist the initial tail/ pressure. Think Kimi let himself down in qualy for sure, but it wasnt a bad start to the season.
als
21st March 2019, 20:15
It’s just Vettel went very aggressive, it is not really a blunder. At least on hindsight, you can see because of that Lewis have to pit early aswell. That means the strategy is working, it’s just Mercedes negate the strategy. But I do think this made Verstappen more of a threat, Red Bulls managed to snatch 3rd place because of that missplay.
So it is not a blunder, it is just not the best play on the given moment. You can see same thing happened with Kimi and he managed to get a position. Though in my opinion Raikkonen is one of the best driver that can keep tyres in shape. Kimi did some impressive work in the past where he need to keep his tyres for a long time; doing 1 stop when other do 2, etc. But Verstappen too is really good on tyre management, Leclerc can’t even pressure or do anything to Verstappen on 1st stint. Proving that Ferrari is just below Red Bulls/Verstappen on race pace.
So Ferrari lost place because:
1. Early pit
2. Slow
3. Verstappen
MtlRacer (@mtlracer)
18th March 2019, 17:31
Is nearly half a second normal for the gap between the fastest and 2nd fastest lap of the race?
I’ve never looked at the gap before, but obviously this year the fastest lap has importance it has basically never had before.