Spanish GP: Race Recap
May 12, 2019
Event: Spanish Grand Prix (Round 5 of 21)
Date: Sunday, May 12
Location: Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya
Layout: 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track
Weather: Partly cloudy
Race Winner: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes
Team Result: Kevin Magnussen – Started 8th, Finished 7th (Running, completed 66/66 laps)
Romain Grosjean – Started 7th, Finished 10th (Running, completed 66/66 laps)
Recap
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean delivered their first double-points result of the season with their finishes of seventh and 10th, respectively in the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship Sunday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. It was the team’s eighth double-points finish since joining the Formula One ranks in 2016.
Both Haas F1 Team drivers started the 66-lap event around the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires as did most of the rest of the field, and they held their relative positions through to the opening round of pit stops that began on lap 19. Magnussen was up to sixth when he pitted on lap 24 for a set of Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and resumed 14th. Grosjean pitted three laps later from fourth for his set of mediums and maintained his position in the top-10 as the remainder of the field executed their first stops.
By lap 33, Grosjean and Magnussen were back to their original grid positions of seventh and eighth, respectively, before Magnussen was passed on lap 35 by the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, dropping him momentarily to ninth. Magnussen regained the eighth position when he beat Kvyat out of the pits during their second stop for soft tires as the safety car was deployed for an incident involving Racing Point driver Lance Stroll and McLaren driver Lando Norris on lap 46. Grosjean made his second stop on the very next lap, also taking on a set of softs.
When the race returned to green on lap 53, with Grosjean seventh and Magnussen eighth, the two Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers touched briefly as Magnussen slipped past his teammate to take seventh place through the first turn. Magnussen held onto that position to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Grosjean lost a spot on lap 60 to local hero, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, then another position a lap later to Kvyat. The Frenchman successfully held off the challenges of Toro Rosso driver Alexander Albon over the closing laps to claim 10th - the final points-paying position.
Today’s results advanced the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team two positions to sixth in the constructors’ standings, two points behind fifth-place Racing Point and two points ahead of seventh-place Alfa Romeo.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led every lap today from his No. 2 position on the grid to beat his pole-winning teammate Valtteri Bottas across the finish line by 4.074 seconds – the fifth consecutive 1-2 finish by Mercedes this season. It was Hamilton’s 76th career victory, his third of the season and fourth at Barcelona. Rounding out the podium was third-place Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
The 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship resumes with the Monaco Grand Prix May 26 at Circuit de Monaco.
Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“Yes, it’s been a good weekend, we’ve had good pace. Before the safety car we were running on our own, doing a good race – I was happy that. The restart was a bit more complicated, it wasn’t ideal for me as I lost a few positions in there. Overall, I’m happy with the way we’ve acted this weekend, happy we’ve shown that the car is fast. Now it’s onto the next one.”
Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“It was good race in terms of pace, we had strong pace – especially towards the end. I didn’t have that many problems with tires. It’s been much better for us this time. We had a brilliant second pit stop from the team when the safety car came out to jump Kvyat. I had good temperature in my tires at the restart, I got past Romain, then attacked Gasly as well, but I couldn’t quite hold on to him. It was a good race for us.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“It’s ended as being a little bit of a controversial weekend, but we’ve sorted it out – cleared the air between the drivers. That’s the most important thing after their race. We maybe lost a couple of points, but we’re all happy to move forward from here, everything is fine. It’s been a good weekend points-wise, with getting two cars into the points. Hopefully we can learn a lot from the test here this week, so we can do the same in Monaco and Canada. At the moment it looks like they’ll be a little bit more difficult for us, because of the track layouts, but I think we can still score points. The whole team did a very good job here this weekend and we come away with double points – happy.”