Red Bull pit strategy
helped Verstappen
gain one positionLeclerc would have to
move over for Vettel –
again – on older tyresTEE
SUTTONSUTT
ON18 APRIL 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 21CHINESE GP RACE CENTREmight give him the chance to catch and pass Verstappen. On top of
that, there was forlorn hope that he might hold up Bottas and allow
Vettel to get into the fight for second.
“We stayed out because we tried to understand the tyre wear and if he
could have concluded the race on one stop,” said Ferrari team principal
Mattia Binotto. “One stop could have been his better chance to recover
some positions. We recognised it was safer to come in.”
Like the rest of the frontrunners, Leclerc had mediums fitted for the
final stint. He emerged, with 14 laps remaining, 15 seconds behind
Verstappen as he navigated the first corner. That gap only came down to
14.695s by the end of the lap and Leclerc faced an almost impossible task.
Over the final 13 laps, Leclerc was the fastest man on circuit, but only
0.850s on average faster than Verstappen, and fell 3.7s short in fifth place.
Behind them, Pierre Gasly’s difficult weekend offered one consolation
in the form of an opportunity to attack Vettel’s fastest lap. He’s still
trying to get on top of how to get the best out of the Red Bull, citing in
particular the corner-exit phase – although he also appears to be
struggling to get the car turned in as he would like.
The result was a lonely run to sixth place but, with a big gap back to
the Renault of Ricciardo, he could comfortably make a pitstop for a set
of softs previously used in qualifying. With three laps remaining, he
dived into the pits and attacked on his first flier. He successfully took
fastest lap by 0.094s, although it was a little more calculated a
In the build-up to the final stage of qualifying, Valtteri Bottas
seemed to have the edge on Mercedes team-mate Lewis
Hamilton. Faster on Friday by 0.707 seconds, in Saturday
practice by 0.859s and in Q1 by 0.457s – even Hamilton’s
advantage in Q2 was the result of having a second crack on
mediums as he tried to get on top of the car. It was a sign
that Hamilton was making progress, but Bottas responded
to the pressure brilliantly, putting in two laps good enough
for pole position in Q3 – just.
On his first lap, a mighty first sector gave him 0.131s over
Hamilton straight away. He eked out a few more hundredths
in the middle sector, but Hamilton’s rapid run through the
final sector meant he closed to within 0.007s by the line.
In fact, he was up on Bottas before a more conservative
approach into the last corner cost him. Talk about pressure...
Bottas didn’t improve by much on his final lap, finding
just 0.016s in trickier conditions, but it was enough to give
him pole position by 0.023s from Hamilton, who failed to
improve. And this was despite Bottas admitting he
couldn’t get a perfect lap.
A glance at the theoretical
fastest lap, based on putting
together the three fastest
sectors by each driver in
qualifying, suggests Hamilton
did have it in him to be ahead.
While nobody managed to put
their perfect lap together in
Q3, that Hamilton lost 0.318s
in the final sector on his final
lap potentially cost him pole.
Ferrari lacked the pace to challenge the Mercedes, with
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc fortunate to beat Max
Verstappen’s Red Bull. Verstappen was just ahead of both
based on his first-run time, but a mix-up in the traffic jam
to start the lap as close as possible to the chequered flag,
during which Vettel overtook him at the hairpin, meant he
didn’t get a second attempt. A similar fate befell sixth-placed
Pierre Gasly and the two Haas drivers.
Vettel beat Leclerc by just 0.017s. Despite closing the
gap to his team-mate, who he had trailed throughout
Friday and Saturday, Leclerc castigated himself over
the radio for mistakes on his lap.
For the first time this season, Renault reached Q3, with
Daniel Ricciardo beating Nico Hulkenberg to seventh place.
EDD STRAW“THAT HAMILTON
LOST 0.318s IN
THE FINAL SECTOR
ON HIS FINAL LAP
POTENTIALLY
COST HIM POLE”QUALIFYING
“AN INSPIRED RED BULL STRATEGY CALL HAD A BIG
IMPACT ON THE RACE BY ENSURING THE OTHER
LEADERS ALSO HAD TO COMMIT TO A TWO-STOPPER
WHEN A ONE-STOPPER WAS STILL POSSIBLE”