2019 Australian Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

2019 Australian Grand Prix

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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

DriverStart positionLap one position changeRace position change
Lewis Hamilton1-1-1
Valtteri Bottas211
Sebastian Vettel30-1
Charles Leclerc500
Max Verstappen401
Pierre Gasly1706
Daniel Ricciardo12-8
Nico Hulkenberg1134
Romain Grosjean6-1
Kevin Magnussen711
Carlos Sainz Jnr184
Lando Norris8-2-4
Sergio Perez10-2-3
Lance Stroll1637
Kimi Raikkonen901
Antonio Giovinazzi14-2-1
Daniil Kvyat1505
Alexander Albon132-1
George Russell1913
Robert Kubica2013

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:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’25.58057
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’26.0570.47757
3Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’26.2560.67657
4Charles LeclercFerrari1’26.9261.34658
5Pierre GaslyRed Bull-Honda1’27.2291.64939
6Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’27.4481.86839
7Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’27.5681.98829
8Sebastian VettelFerrari1’27.9542.37416
9Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’28.1822.60256
10Alexander AlbonToro Rosso-Honda1’28.1882.60843
11Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’28.2702.69052
12Nico HulkenbergRenault1’28.4442.86452
13Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’28.4622.88217
14Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’28.4792.89929
15Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’28.4852.90541
16Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’28.5552.97517
17George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’28.7133.13355
18Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’29.2843.70430
19Daniel RicciardoRenault1’29.8484.26818
20Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’30.8995.3199

2019 Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Valtteri BottasC4 (23)C3 (35)
Lewis HamiltonC4 (15)C3 (43)
Max VerstappenC4 (25)C3 (33)
Sebastian VettelC4 (14)C3 (44)
Charles LeclercC4 (28)C2 (30)
Kevin MagnussenC4 (14)C3 (44)
Nico HulkenbergC4 (13)C2 (44)
Kimi RaikkonenC4 (12)C3 (45)
Lance StrollC3 (27)C2 (30)
Daniil KvyatC3 (26)C2 (31)
Pierre GaslyC3 (37)C4 (20)
Lando NorrisC4 (15)C2 (42)
Sergio PerezC4 (13)C2 (44)
Alexander AlbonC4 (14)C3 (43)
Antonio GiovinazziC3 (27)C4 (30)
George RussellC3 (26)C4 (16)C2 (14)
Robert KubicaC2 (1)C3 (27)C4 (16)C4 (11)
Romain GrosjeanC4 (15)C3 (14)
Daniel RicciardoC4 (1)C2 (27)
Carlos Sainz JnrC4 (9)

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2019 Australian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Max VerstappenRed Bull21.15725
2Pierre GaslyRed Bull21.2690.11237
3Lewis HamiltonMercedes21.5150.35815
4George RussellWilliams21.5430.38642
5Nico HulkenbergRenault21.5880.43113
6Lando NorrisMcLaren21.6270.47015
7George RussellWilliams21.6890.53226
8Alexander AlbonToro Rosso21.7800.62314
9Robert KubicaWilliams21.8890.73244
10Sebastian VettelFerrari21.9950.83814
11Valtteri BottasMercedes22.0140.85723
12Daniil KvyatToro Rosso22.0860.92926
13Charles LeclercFerrari22.3061.14928
14Robert KubicaWilliams22.3431.18628
15Kevin MagnussenHaas22.3881.23114
16Lance StrollRacing Point22.4711.31427
17Sergio PerezRacing Point23.2342.07713
18Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo23.2992.14212
19Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo27.1726.01527
20Romain GrosjeanHaas29.9818.82415
21Robert KubicaWilliams32.99711.8401
22Daniel RicciardoRenault33.02711.8701

2019 Australian Grand Prix

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    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    17 comments on “2019 Australian Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

    1. Lap times from Bottas are seriously impressive.

      1. 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.

    2. 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.

      1. Kubica had to pit on lap one together with Ricciardo. He started on the backfoot. Can’t be compared yet.

      2. 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.

      3. 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.

      4. 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.

    3. Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
      17th March 2019, 19:23

      What were Williams playing at with the 2-stop strategies?

      1. Russell said they were just trying all types of tyre, implying they were effectively testing @leonardodicappucino

    4. 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… ;-)

      1. 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.

        1. 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… ;-)

    5. 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 !!

      1. Lastly, Kimi//Nico//Kevin—Absolutely packed midfield as expected !!

        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.

      2. 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

    6. 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.

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