Ferrari suffered a double whammy of misfortune when Sebastian Vettel’s car failed after his pit stop. Not only did it wreck their chances of another one-two finish, but it triggered a Virtual Safety Car period which cost them victory.
Lewis Hamilton, who had inherited the lead after the Ferrari drivers pitted, was able to dive into the pits and rejoin the track ahead of Charles Leclerc, gaining a lead he never lost.But it wasn’t just Hamilton who benefitted and Leclerc who lost from the VSC period. A big winner was Kevin Magnussen, who had been running behind Lando Norries and Sergio Perez, but got out of the pits ahead of them.
A five-place grid penalty meant Max Verstappen started ninth instead of fourth, but he made surprisingly slow progress from there. It took him until lap 17 to get ahead of the McLaren drivers, and he dropped back from the leaders after the Safety Car brought him within range of them.
Red Bull have struggled to recapture the form they showed before the summer break. Perhaps the most telling sign of their lack of pace today was that they didn’t bother putting Verstappen on a set of soft tyres at the end of the race in an attempt to set the fastest lap.
Hamilton bagged the fastest lap, though Leclerc thought about going for it. After being told his rival had set a 1’35.761, Leclerc opted not to make an attempt of his own.
His misfortune during the VSC was compounded when the team decided – after consulting Leclerc on the radio – to bring him in during a subsequent Safety Car period for another set of soft tyres. This dropped him behind Bottas, but the team hoped their tyre life advantage would help them overtake at least one if not both Mercedes. But it didn’t turn out that way, and Ferrari’s disappointing afternoon was complete.
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2019 Russian 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 Russian 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 | 4 | -1 | 2 |
Sebastian Vettel | 3 | 2 | |
Charles Leclerc | 1 | -1 | -2 |
Max Verstappen | 9 | 1 | 5 |
Alexander Albon | 20 | 2 | 15 |
Daniel Ricciardo | 10 | -9 | |
Nico Hulkenberg | 6 | -3 | -4 |
Romain Grosjean | 8 | ||
Kevin Magnussen | 13 | 3 | 5 |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 5 | 1 | -1 |
Lando Norris | 7 | 1 | -2 |
Sergio Perez | 11 | 4 | 4 |
Lance Stroll | 14 | 3 | 3 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 15 | 0 | 2 |
Antonio Giovinazzi | 12 | 0 | -3 |
Daniil Kvyat | 19 | 5 | 7 |
Pierre Gasly | 16 | 3 | 2 |
George Russell | 17 | 1 | |
Robert Kubica | 18 | 1 |
2019 Russian 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 Russian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’35.761 | 51 | |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’36.193 | 0.432 | 52 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’36.316 | 0.555 | 50 |
4 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’36.762 | 1.001 | 50 |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’36.937 | 1.176 | 47 |
6 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’38.020 | 2.259 | 53 |
7 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’38.043 | 2.282 | 49 |
8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.130 | 2.369 | 53 |
9 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’38.228 | 2.467 | 52 |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’38.245 | 2.484 | 16 |
11 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’38.301 | 2.540 | 52 |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’38.519 | 2.758 | 53 |
13 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’38.589 | 2.828 | 51 |
14 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’38.606 | 2.845 | 51 |
15 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’38.611 | 2.850 | 53 |
16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’38.696 | 2.935 | 51 |
17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’41.284 | 5.523 | 22 |
18 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.705 | 5.944 | 18 |
19 | Robert Kubica | Williams-Mercedes | 1’42.327 | 6.566 | 24 |
20 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari |
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2019 Russian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | C3 (28) | C4 (25) | |
Valtteri Bottas | C3 (28) | C4 (25) | |
Charles Leclerc | C4 (22) | C3 (8) | C4 (23) |
Max Verstappen | C4 (28) | C3 (25) | |
Alexander Albon | C3 (29) | C4 (24) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (21) | C3 (32) | |
Sergio Perez | C4 (23) | C3 (30) | |
Lando Norris | C4 (20) | C3 (33) | |
Kevin Magnussen | C4 (27) | C3 (26) | |
Nico Hulkenberg | C4 (16) | C3 (13) | C4 (24) |
Lance Stroll | C3 (27) | C4 (26) | |
Daniil Kvyat | C2 (27) | C4 (2) | C4 (24) |
Kimi Raikkonen | C3 (27) | C4 (26) | |
Pierre Gasly | C3 (26) | C4 (27) | |
Antonio Giovinazzi | C4 (2) | C2 (25) | C3 (26) |
Robert Kubica | C3 (1) | C2 (1) | C3 (26) |
George Russell | C3 (27) | ||
Sebastian Vettel | C4 (26) | C3 (0) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | C4 (1) | C3 (23) | |
Romain Grosjean |
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2019 Russian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 29.290 | 20 | |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 29.401 | 0.111 | 30 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 29.436 | 0.146 | 28 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 29.548 | 0.258 | 22 |
5 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 29.571 | 0.281 | 29 |
6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 29.751 | 0.461 | 28 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 29.786 | 0.496 | 29 |
8 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 29.854 | 0.564 | 29 |
9 | George Russell | Williams | 29.857 | 0.567 | 27 |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 29.860 | 0.570 | 26 |
11 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 29.935 | 0.645 | 26 |
12 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 29.978 | 0.688 | 28 |
13 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 30.103 | 0.813 | 21 |
14 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 30.168 | 0.878 | 27 |
15 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 30.177 | 0.887 | 2 |
16 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 30.227 | 0.937 | 27 |
17 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 30.271 | 0.981 | 23 |
18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 30.509 | 1.219 | 27 |
19 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 30.587 | 1.297 | 1 |
20 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 30.753 | 1.463 | 27 |
21 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 34.264 | 4.974 | 16 |
22 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 36.031 | 6.741 | 1 |
23 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 36.512 | 7.222 | 27 |
24 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 38.193 | 8.903 | 2 |
2019 Russian Grand Prix
- Williams clarifies reasons for Kubica and Russell’s retirements in Sochi
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- Hamilton triumphs as Ferrari’s micro-management backfires
- Leclerc defends call for extra pit stop which cost him second place
Face21 (@face21)
29th September 2019, 23:06
Has anybody noticed that the gap which Lewis had over Valtteri increased by over 6 seconds during the VSC (lap 28)?
Lap 27 – > Valtteri +13
Lap 28 – > Valtteri +19.5
Given that his stop was 0.5 faster, it would be interesting to know what happened exactly.
It might have been that Lewis had already passed the long straight while Valtteri and Charles wouldn’t have passed it since the same tend can be seen with Charles’ times.
Given that Charles was under 6s behind when Lewis came out of the pits, this could have been the fact that actually decided the race.
@Keith, if you could shed some light over it, it would be very interesting :)
Everybody (seems like even Ferrari) was expecting Lewis to be ahead due to the VSC, so nobody seems to have noticed it, but the fact is that Charles was just under 19s behind Lewis and the stop under VSC was over 18s (at least in Valtteri’s case). In other words, the stop under VSC was about 6s faster than under normal conditions, and Charles on fresher tires had reduced the gap to Lewis by roughly that amount, so it should have been much closer between them at the pit lane exit than it actually was…
Not to take anything away from Lewis, who had an incredible weekend, managing an outstanding lap in qualifying, and being at the right place in the right time to take the lead and the victory.
Face21 (@face21)
29th September 2019, 23:13
I meant @keithcollantine.
Good night!
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th September 2019, 12:21
That is a very interesting look at the data, nicely done @face21!
On a different note, I heard the Dutch Ziggo after race studio discussion (only Doornbos tends to be good, and relatively unbiased observer, and so it was, I guess) trash Albons drive ‘look how far he was behind at the end, even with the SC’, but that seems even more biased now, with data, than yesterday.
Even apart from the fact that @keithcollantine rightly notes the same effect about Verstappen, and how long it took him to overtake the McLaren, which Albon dit a lot faster, Albon also didn’t have clean air for a lot of that, had to use his tyres much more, and was, as indicated by his Fastest lap, he was than Verstappen, once he was past that McLaren and insixth.
Mo doubt Albon isn’t (yet??) on the same level, but no need to unfairly make hum look bad.
Miguel (@bruuuuum)
30th September 2019, 18:45
@face21 numbers don’t lie and I guess you’re right… Where does those 6 seconds come from?? It seems that the timing when vsc was deployed handed Lewis the victory. The curious thing is that nobody (media or Ferrari itself) seems to have noticed it (or does not want to talk about it). Could you please @keithcollantine dig a little more in this matter? It’s very intriguing indeed :)
Roope Pöyry (@robben)
1st October 2019, 8:53
@face21 Bottas simply had to drive bigger part of the lap 28 under VSC conditions compared to Hamilton. This is also the reason why Leclerc was 25s behind HAM after lap 28 instead of 19s. And 25s gap is easily big enough to do a pit stop under VSC.