Silverstone,
14
July
2019
|
18:02
Europe/Amsterdam

2019 British Grand Prix - Race

Silverstone, July 14, 2019

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling British Grand Prix for the sixth time with an unexpected one-stop strategy, having switched from medium to hard tyres under the safety car before the halfway point of the race. He was the only one of the top three to stop just once, winning with a margin of more than 20 seconds and shattering the existing lap record at the end of a race in which every P Zero compound performed extremely well.

KEY MOMENTS

  • There was a wide variety of strategies seen throughout the 52-lap race, with four different strategies in the top five.
  • Only Mercedes and Red Bull started on the medium tyre from the top 10 of the grid, with Mercedes finishing first and second, and Red Bull fourth and fifth.
  • Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the highest-placed driver to begin the race on the Red soft tyre, finishing the grand prix in his qualifying position of third.
  • The safety car marked a turning point, with nearly all of the frontrunners (with the exception of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas) using it to make a pit stop.
  • Conditions remained dry and cool throughout the race, but there was no rain at all, unlike the previous two days at Silverstone.

HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED

  • HARD C1: Incredibly, a 32-lap old set of the hardest compound of the 2019 P Zero range set Silverstone’s fastest-ever race lap on the final tour, more than 3.3 seconds faster than the previous benchmark.
  • MEDIUM C2: Starting the race on this tyre enabled the winner, plus five others, to complete this demanding race using just one pit stop. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen started on medium but used a two-stop strategy to finish fifth. Bottas also started on medium and stopped twice.
  • SOFT C3: Bottas and the Racing Point duo were the only drivers to finish the race on this compound, but it was used widely during the opening stint.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING

“All three compounds played an integral part in a fantastic race today, with perhaps the most remarkable performance coming from the hard tyre with Lewis Hamilton, who claimed the fastest lap just before taking the chequered flag, on a set of tyres that had already covered 32 laps. And this on one of the most demanding circuits of the year, with energy loads in excess of 4g through some of the corners. From start to finish we saw a highly entertaining race with plenty of action and close battles. The safety car was a decisive element, which effectively split the race into two sprints as most drivers took advantage of it to make a pit stop. The decision to pit Hamilton from the medium to the hard during this safety car proved to be a key element of his victory. Now we look forward to continuing our development of the 2020 compounds, with two days of testing with Red Bull and Williams at Silverstone.”

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND

HARD MEDIUM SOFT
Hamilton
1m27.369s
Vettel
1m28.733s
Bottas
1m27.406s
Verstappen
1m29.272s
Bottas
1m28.784s
Stroll
1m29.390s
Leclerc
1m29.313s
Hamilton
1m30.236s
Perez
1m29.456s

LONGEST STINT OF THE RACE

COMPOUND DRIVER LAPS
HARD C1 Gasly 40
MEDIUM C2 Albon 39
SOFT C3 Perez 22

PIT STOP SUMMARY

CAR DRIVER START PIT 1 PIT 2 PIT 3
44 HAM C2u C1n (20)    
77 BOT C2u C2n (16) C3u (45)  
16 LEC C3u C2u (13) C1u (21)  
10 GAS C2u C1n (12)    
33 VER C2u C2n (13) C1n (20)  
55 SAI C2n C1n (20)    
3 RIC C3u C2n (12) C1n (20)  
7 RAI C2n C1n (17)    
26 KVY C3n C2n (12) C1u (21)  
27 HUL C3u C1u (13)    
4 NOR C3u C2n (13) C1n (35)  
23 ALB C3u C2n (13)    
18 STR C2n C1n (13) C3n (39)  
63 RUS C2n C1n (21)    
88 KUB C2n C1n (20)    
5 VET C3u C1u (20) C2n (38)  
11 PER C2n C1n (18) C3n (24) C3u (46)
99 GIO C2n      
8 GRO C3n C1n (1)    
20 MAG C3n C1n (1)    

C1 = Hard C1  |  C2 = Medium C2  |  C3 = Soft C3
n = new  |  u = used