2019 Spanish GP: Qualifying Analysis

Valtteri Bottas took a dominant pole position at Catalunya, achieving a third consecutive pole for the first time in his career. We take a look at all the stats and stories from Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix!

Q  U  A  L  I  F  Y  I  N  G     R  E  C  A  P

• Bottas takes pole with a huge six tenth margin to team-mate
• Ferrari fast in first sector, but slower than Red Bull in sectors two and three
• Hulkenberg eliminated in Q1 after damaging front wing, Ricciardo reaches Q3
• Haas ‘best of the rest’, both McLarens out in Q2

The Ultimate Pace

Valtteri Bottas appeared unstoppable in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, as he took pole position by over six tenths of a second – the largest pole margin seen at the track since fellow Finn Mika Hakkinen beat team-mate David Coulthard to pole in 1998. The sector times show, however, that Ferrari were in fact faster than Mercedes in the first sector, with Sebastian Vettel setting a 21.284 compared to Bottas’ 21.488 in the opening part of the track. The latter sectors didn’t suit the Ferrari, however, with Mercedes being comfortably quicker – especially in the final sector. Red Bull’s pace was faster than Ferrari’s in both of the last two sectors, which certainly helped Max Verstappen to split the two Ferrari drivers on the grid.

By adding each drivers’ best three sector times together, we can get an idea of who put a lap together when it mattered, and who failed to pull all three sectors into one fast lap. This weekend, only Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and George Russell achieved their full potential on their final qualifying lap. The largest difference between best actual lap and best potential lap was for Lewis Hamilton, whose fastest lap was a quarter of a second off his best three sector times added together. Even on their ultimate pace, however, Bottas was still 0.382 seconds up on Hamilton. For the first time this season, the grid would remain the same as it is if it was determined by the drivers’ best three sector times added together! The lap times are compared in the table below:

The team-mate battles

The largest gap between team-mates in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix was at Williams, where George Russell out-paced Robert Kubica by 1.182 seconds. It’s a worrying stat for Kubica, who swapped chassis with Russell ahead of the race weekend.

There were closer battles elsewhere in qualifying. At Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel eventually finished 0.316 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc in Q3. In the previous two sessions though, the pair had been separated by less than half a hundredth of a second. Leclerc was 0.037 seconds faster in Q1, while Vettel was faster by 0.047 seconds in Q2. Things were even closer at Haas, where Romain Grosjean won the Q3 battle by just 0.011 seconds.

Small differences between team-mates can make a big difference to a driver’s qualifying attempt. This was most noticeable at Renault. In Q1, Daniel Ricciardo was faster than Nico Hulkenberg by just 0.019 seconds. While Ricciardo eventually progressed into the top ten, Hulkenberg was eliminated in Q1.

Largest gaps in each session:

Q1: Russell 1.182s faster than Kubica

Q2: Norris 0.261s faster than Sainz

Q3: Bottas 0.634s faster than Hamilton

Gap between team-mates in last session where each driver set a time:

Looking at each driver’s ultimate pace also offers an interesting glimpse into who was fastest in each sector in each team. The results can be found in the table below. The smallest gap between a pair of team-mates’ best sector times today was 0.006 seconds, which separated Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat in the first sector, while the largest gap was 0.586 seconds, which was how much faster Kimi Raikkonen was than Antonio Giovinazzi in the final sector.

Find all the team-mate battle statistics for the 2019 season here!

Team Pace

As mentioned above, Ferrari were fastest in the first sector, while Mercedes were fastest in sectors two and three, and Red Bull were faster than Ferrari in the latter two sectors. Red Bull’s pace was down in the first sector, with McLaren being the third fastest team in that section of track. Haas were the fourth fastest team in every sector, and Williams were slowest in all three parts of the track.

About the above table: the ‘gap to ultimate pace’ column shows the gap between the team’s best three sector times added together and the overall best three sector times added together. The ‘gap to pole time’ column shows the gap between the team’s best three sector times added together and the lap time of the polesitter.

Improvements between 2018 and 2019

Every team’s pace was faster in 2019 than it was in qualifying for the 2018 race. Toro Rosso were the most improved team, lapping over a second faster than they did last year, while Ferrari saw the least improvement since 2018.  You can see the full data below:

All set for Sunday:

Will Valtteri Bottas stamp his authority on the 2019 title race with a third win of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix, or can Lewis Hamilton get ahead of the Finn in the race? Can Ferrari do anything to secure their first win of the season – or will they have to look out for the threat from Red Bull? Elsewhere, Haas will be hoping to hold on to their starting positions, while Lando Norris will be looking to move up with his free tyre choice from tenth on the grid.

In the Lucky and Unlucky Grid Positions:

[one_half]

LUCKY:

Pole: Valtteri Bottas

3rd: Sebastian Vettel

5th: Charles Leclerc

9th: Daniil Kvyat

19th: Robert Kubica[/one_half]

[one_half_last]

UNLUCKY:

4th: Max Verstappen

6th: Pierre Gasly

8th: Kevin Magnussen

10th: Lando Norris

16th: Nico Hulkenberg

20th: George Russell[/one_half_last]

Find out what makes each grid position lucky or unlucky here!