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

2019 Chinese Grand Prix

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The front-runners all made at least two pit stops each in the Chinese Grand Prix, triggered by Red Bull’s early stops for Max Verstappen.

However the rest of the top 10 was filled by one-stoppers. They were led by Daniel Ricciardo, who had unsuccessfully tried to make the same strategy work in Bahrain.

This time it paid off and he led the midfield home. He was the only driver to start the race on used soft tyres and complete it with just one further pit stop, for hard tyres.

Alexander Albon used the same strategy but had the benefit of being able to start the race on fresh rubber. He did a superb job, however, to climb 10 places – twice as many as any other driver – to finish in the points having started in the pits.

Red Bull took advantage of Pierre Gasly’s gap over his pursuers to give him a pit stop at the end of the race, put him on a set of (used) soft tyres, and grab the fastest lap of the race. But Gasly, who had been unable to get close to Max Verstappen’s lap times all weekend, only beat Sebastian Vettel to the fastest time by less than a tenth of a second.

Ferrari had the opportunity to do the same with Charles Leclerc but, just as in Australia, chose not to. This was a curious decision, but perhaps not as strange as their hotly-debated order early in the race for Leclerc to let Vettel pass him.

Before the switch the team asked Vettel if he could lap quicker than Leclerc. He replied that he could, but after the two swapped positions his lap times did not improve at all – if anything, he was slightly slower.

As the graph below shows, Leclerc lost almost two seconds letting Vettel through. Had Ferrari not made this call, they would have been in a stronger position to cover off the threat from Verstappen.

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2019 Chinese 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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2019 Chinese 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:

Position change

Driver Start position Lap one position change Race position change
Lewis Hamilton 2 1 1
Valtteri Bottas 1 -1 -1
Sebastian Vettel 3 -1 0
Charles Leclerc 4 1 -1
Max Verstappen 5 0 1
Pierre Gasly 6 0 0
Daniel Ricciardo 7 0 0
Nico Hulkenberg 8 -1
Romain Grosjean 10 0 -1
Kevin Magnussen 10 -1 -3
Carlos Sainz Jnr 14 -5 0
Lando Norris 15 -5 -3
Sergio Perez 12 4 4
Lance Stroll 16 3 4
Kimi Raikkonen 13 1 4
Antonio Giovinazzi 20 6 5
Daniil Kvyat 11 -6
Alexander Albon 20 2 10
George Russell 17 2 1
Robert Kubica 18 2 1

2019 Chinese 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 Chinese Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank Driver Car Fastest lap Gap On lap
1 Pierre Gasly Red Bull-Honda 1’34.742 55
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’34.836 0.094 37
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’34.860 0.118 45
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’34.872 0.130 38
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’35.892 1.150 47
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1’36.143 1.401 45
7 Lance Stroll Racing Point-Mercedes 1’36.678 1.936 46
8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’36.873 2.131 37
9 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1’37.283 2.541 51
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’37.471 2.729 35
11 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren-Renault 1’37.502 2.760 44
12 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’37.812 3.070 27
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Honda 1’37.975 3.233 27
14 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1’38.048 3.306 32
15 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1’38.346 3.604 37
16 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1’38.632 3.890 38
17 Sergio Perez Racing Point-Mercedes 1’38.702 3.960 37
18 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso-Honda 1’38.901 4.159 22
19 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’39.677 4.935 14
20 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1’39.772 5.030 28

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2019 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3 Stint 4
Lewis Hamilton C3 (22) C2 (14) C3 (20)
Valtteri Bottas C3 (21) C2 (15) C3 (20)
Sebastian Vettel C3 (18) C2 (17) C3 (21)
Max Verstappen C3 (17) C2 (17) C3 (22)
Charles Leclerc C3 (22) C2 (20) C3 (14)
Pierre Gasly C4 (19) C2 (20) C3 (14) C4 (3)
Daniel Ricciardo C4 (18) C2 (37)
Sergio Perez C3 (20) C2 (35)
Kimi Raikkonen C3 (25) C2 (30)
Alexander Albon C4 (19) C2 (36)
Romain Grosjean C4 (8) C2 (27) C3 (20)
Lance Stroll C3 (20) C2 (24) C4 (11)
Kevin Magnussen C4 (9) C2 (24) C3 (22)
Carlos Sainz Jnr C3 (1) C2 (35) C4 (19)
Antonio Giovinazzi C4 (7) C3 (23) C3 (25)
George Russell C3 (22) C2 (27) C4 (5)
Robert Kubica C3 (26) C2 (28)
Lando Norris C3 (1) C2 (16) C3 (17) C4 (16)
Daniil Kvyat C3 (7) C2 (18) C4 (5)
Nico Hulkenberg C4 (11) C2 (5)

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2019 Chinese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap
1 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 17.257 7
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 22.196 4.939 21
3 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 22.301 5.044 19
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 22.316 5.059 35
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 22.365 5.108 34
6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 22.408 5.151 53
7 Lando Norris McLaren 22.524 5.267 34
8 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren 22.532 5.275 36
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.644 5.387 22
10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 22.722 5.465 39
11 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 22.749 5.492 18
12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 22.921 5.664 22
13 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso 23.215 5.958 19
14 Max Verstappen Red Bull 23.223 5.966 17
15 Romain Grosjean Haas 23.261 6.004 8
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 23.383 6.126 33
17 Lance Stroll Racing Point 23.466 6.209 20
18 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 23.506 6.249 18
19 Lance Stroll Racing Point 23.515 6.258 44
20 Romain Grosjean Haas 23.520 6.263 35
21 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 23.597 6.340 36
22 Sergio Perez Racing Point 23.733 6.476 20
23 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 23.888 6.631 25
24 Kevin Magnussen Haas 23.964 6.707 9
25 George Russell Williams 23.965 6.708 49
26 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 24.083 6.826 36
27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 24.107 6.850 11
28 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 24.227 6.970 42
29 George Russell Williams 24.332 7.075 22
30 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 25.137 7.880 30
31 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 25.184 7.927 7
32 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 26.050 8.793 25
33 Robert Kubica Williams 32.627 15.370 26
34 Lando Norris McLaren 33.638 16.381 17
35 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 43.206 25.949 30
36 Carlos Sainz Jnr McLaren 45.878 28.621 1
37 Lando Norris McLaren 50.738 33.481 1

2019 Chinese 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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7 comments on “2019 Chinese Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. Gasly totally destroyed Vettel with softer tyres and 30kg less fuel :P
    Still happy for the guy though, and hope he’ll improve quickly.

  2. Graphs shows that Chalres is so fast in Ferrari that Ferrari can’t handle from strateg point of view. They want Seb to lead Ferrari in Championship but after three races Charles is showing the leadership.
    After bad week for Charles, only 13 laps in FP2 Charles still faster.
    Sebastian had full potential and he had Bahrain test with 100 laps and still he can not deliver.

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      14th April 2019, 18:24

      I don’t think you can draw any conclusion from the graphs. If they told Leclerc that he had to stay out as long as possible after Vettel passed him he likely went a bit slower. They also told Leclerc to push on his fresh tyres after the first pitstop. We really need all the info and contex to get the full picture. They were definitly very close though.

  3. If graphs told the whole story? Mercedes are a miracle team as one Ali G fan said once…

  4. dorin mogos
    15th April 2019, 7:11

    The race chart is not compared to the average lap time of the leader, but it should. It would be easier to read the story of the race.

  5. Its amazing how close Sergio and Daniel were throughout the race.

    Lap times–Gasly consistently slower than Max on the same tyres… Genuinely feel there is more in that car. Poor chap is still trying to get a hang of the car i guess.

  6. There was nothing to choose between Vettel’s and Leclerc’s lap times during the entire race. The only difference being when Leclerc was on really work out tyres and being kept out as a roadblock for Bottas. What a brain fart of a decision to give team orders and let Vettel by.

    Leclerc can only be positive about his performances though.. he was struggling this weekend as compared to Vettel and yet managed to have as strong if not a stronger race weekend than Seb.

Comments are closed.