2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 31 March 2019 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain.[1][3] The race was the second round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the 15th time that the Bahrain Grand Prix had been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.[3][4]

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix
Race 2 of 21 in the 2019 Formula One World Championship
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Race details[1]
Date 31 March 2019
Official name Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019
Location Bahrain International Circuit
Sakhir, Bahrain
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.412 km (3.362 mi)
Distance 57 laps, 308.238 km (191.530 mi)
Weather Clear
Attendance 97,000[2]
Pole position
Driver
Ferrari
Time 1:27.866
Fastest lap
Driver Charles Leclerc Ferrari
Time 1:33.411 on lap 38
Podium
First
Mercedes
Second
Mercedes
Third
Ferrari

Background

Championship standings before the race

Heading into the Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas led the World Drivers' Championship by 8 points over teammate Lewis Hamilton. Their team, Mercedes, was holding a 22-point lead over Ferrari in the World Constructors' Championships.[5][6]

Entrants
Further information: 2019 Formula One World Championship § Entries

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand in drivers for either the race or practice.[7]

The main title sponsor of Ferrari, Mission Winnow, returned from this race, after it was not used by the Scuderia at the previous race in Australia for legal reasons.[8]

DRS

Before the race, it was announced that an extra drag reduction system (DRS) zone would be added to the circuit. In addition to the DRS zones between turns 15 and 1 and between turns 10 and 11 an extra DRS zone was added between turns 3 and 4. This change was expected to increase the number of overtakes and promote more pit stops during the race.[9]

Free practice

The first practice session happened without major incident and ended with a Ferrari one-two with Charles Leclerc leading Sebastian Vettel with Leclerc comfortably beating the next fastest constructor by nearly one second.[10] The second and third practice sessions also ended with a comfortable Ferrari one-two although it was Leclerc who was leading Vettel in third practice.[11][12]

Qualifying

Charles Leclerc got his first pole position of his Formula 1 career in the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix Weekend with his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in second with a time 0.3 seconds slower.[13][14] After Ferrari looked substantially ahead of Mercedes in free practice, Mercedes did manage to close the gap to the Italian team, but still qualified on the second row for the race on Sunday, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas.[14][15] Max Verstappen was 0.5 seconds adrift from Valtteri Bottas in 4th place with Kevin Magnussen only 0.005 seconds slower than the Dutchman.[14] Carlos Sainz Jr. split the two Haas cars in 7th and Kimi Räikkönen continuing his longest streak of Q3's in Formula 1, qualifying ninth just ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren in 10th.[14]

Pierre Gasly missed out on Q3 once again in Bahrain in the Red Bull, qualifying 13th behind Daniel Ricciardo in 11th and Alexander Albon in 12th, Sergio Pérez qualified 14th, 0.3 seconds quicker than Daniil Kvyat in 15th in his Toro Rosso.[14][16]

Nico Hülkenberg (Renault) was the shock exit in Q1 in 17th place behind Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo and ahead of Lance Stroll, who qualified 18th.[14][17] Williams once again qualify on the back row, the lead Williams George Russell 1.5 seconds away from Stroll and Robert Kubica qualified in last place with a 1:31.799 compared to the fastest time of 1:28.495.[14]

Qualifying classification
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Qualifying times Final
grid
Q1 Q2 Q3
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.495 1:28.046 1:27.866 1
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:28.733 1:28.356 1:28.160 2
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.262 1:28.578 1:28.190 3
4 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:29.498 1:28.830 1:28.256 4
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda 1:29.579 1:29.109 1:28.752 5
6 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1:29.532 1:29.017 1:28.757 6
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren-Renault 1:29.528 1:29.055 1:28.813 7
8 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1:29.688 1:29.249 1:29.015 111
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:29.959 1:29.471 1:29.022 8
10 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 1:29.381 1:29.258 1:29.043 9
11 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:29.859 1:29.488 N/A 10
12 23 Alexander Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 1:29.514 1:29.513 N/A 12
13 10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing-Honda 1:29.900 1:29.526 N/A 13
14 11 Sergio Pérez Racing Point-BWT Mercedes 1:29.893 1:29.756 N/A 14
15 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 1:29.876 1:29.854 N/A 15
16 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:30.026 N/A N/A 16
17 27 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:30.034 N/A N/A 17
18 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point-BWT Mercedes 1:30.217 N/A N/A 18
19 63 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1:31.759 N/A N/A 19
20 88 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 1:31.799 N/A N/A 20
107% time: 1:34.689
Source:[14][18]
Notes

Race

Charles Leclerc started from pole position but lost two positions to his teammate Sebastian Vettel and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, who managed to get ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the first corner. Romain Grosjean and Lance Stroll tangled on the first lap with Stroll hitting Grosjean, giving the Haas damage.

By the end of the first lap, Leclerc was on Bottas' tail and passed the Finn into turn 1 on lap 2, which also allowed Lewis Hamilton to take third place from Bottas. On lap 4, Carlos Sainz Jr. attacked Max Verstappen on the outside in turn 4 but the two collided, giving Sainz a puncture. On lap 6, Charles Leclerc overtook Vettel for the lead of the race into turn 1 and began to pull away quickly. Antonio Giovinazzi sent Daniil Kvyat into a spin at turn 11.

Hamilton was catching Vettel throughout the race and eventually caught up to him on lap 38, making a move around the outside at turn 4. Vettel went into a spin on corner exit, saying he got surprised and lost the rear of the car. In the process he flat-spotted his tires, causing severe vibration leading to a front wing failure. Pitting to replace the front wing dropped him to 9th place. The Renaults were running 6th and 7th and made contact while battling for position into turn 1, with Daniel Ricciardo left with front wing damage.

On lap 46, Leclerc was cruising in the lead but then reported an engine issue and slowed significantly. It was later revealed that one of his engine cylinders had stopped working. On lap 48 he was caught by Hamilton, who took the lead. On lap 54 Leclerc was passed by Bottas dropping Leclerc to 3rd and it was looking likely that he was going to be overtaken by Verstappen. However, with 4 laps remaining the two Renaults retired with mechanical issues and brought out the safety car, which stayed out until the end of the race, making it only the 8th race in Formula 1 to finish under a safety car. As a result, Leclerc managed to hold on to 3rd place and claimed his first ever podium in Formula 1. Leclerc also had the fastest lap of the race, giving him and Ferrari one extra point for their respective championships.

Race classification
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 57 1:34:21.295 3 25
2 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 57 +2.980 4 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 57 +6.131 1 161
4 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda 57 +6.408 5 12
5 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 57 +36.068 2 10
6 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Renault 57 +45.754 9 8
7 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 57 +47.470 8 6
8 10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing-Honda 57 +58.094 13 4
9 23 Alexander Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 57 +1:02.697 12 2
10 11 Sergio Pérez Racing Point-BWT Mercedes 57 +1:03.696 14 1
11 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 57 +1:04.599 16
12 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda 56 +1 lap 15
13 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 56 +1 lap 6
14 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point-BWT Mercedes 56 +1 lap 18
15 63 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 56 +1 lap 19
16 88 Robert Kubica Williams-Mercedes 55 +2 laps 20
172 27 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 53 Power unit 17
182 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 53 Power loss 10
192 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren-Renault 53 Gearbox 7
Ret 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 16 Collision damage 11
Fastest lap: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1:33.411 (lap 38)
Source:[19][20]
Notes

Championship standings after the race
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
gollark: You should have a 100-byte limit and not test it.
gollark: `print("BEES"*(2**61-1))` is obviously best (ensure access to sufficiently powerful computer).
gollark: I think I should inevitably win, actually?
gollark: `print("BEES"*(2**61-1))` is theoretically optimal ignoring RAM.
gollark: Ignoring bees like memory and also it being too long, `print("BEES"*2305843009213693951)` is best.

See also
  • 2019 Bahrain FIA Formula 2 round

References
  1. "2019 Bahrain Grand Prix". Formula1.com. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  2. "Record Crowds Attend Bahrain's 15th Anniversary Race". bahraingp.com. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  3. "2019". StatsF1. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  4. "Grands Prix Bahrain". StatsF1. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  5. "2019 Driver Standings". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019.
  6. "2019 Constructor Standings". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019.
  7. "2019 Bahrain Grand Prix – Entry List". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. Franco Nugnes (23 March 2019). "Ferrari: nel GP del Bahrain torna la livrea con lo sponsor Mission Winnow". motorsport.com (in Italian). Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  9. "Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 DRS zones: Drivers predicting aggressive Bahrain strategies after DRS addition". Formula1.com. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  10. "Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 – Practice 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  11. "Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix practice 2 standings". Formula1.com. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  12. "Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix practice 3". Formula1.com. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  13. "Charles Leclerc – Pole positions". StatsF1. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  14. "Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 – Qualifying". Formula1.com. 30 March 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  15. "Bahrain Grand Prix 2019: Hamilton says Mercedes can still beat Ferrari in Bahrain". Formula1.com. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  16. "Pierre Gasly – Grands Prix started". StatsF1. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  17. "Hulkenberg on Q1 exit: Renault car issues 'came at worst possible time'". Formula1.com. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  18. "Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 – Starting Grid". Formula1.com. 30 March 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  19. "Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 – Race Result". Formula1.com. 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  20. "Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 – Fastest Laps". Formula1.com. 31 March 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  21. "Bahrain 2019 – Championship". StatsF1. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
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