The 2019 Chinese Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix 2019) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 14 April 2019 at the

Shanghai International Circuit The Shanghai International Circuit (), also called the SAIC Shanghai International Circuit () for sponsorship purposes, is a motorsport race track, situated in the Jiading District, Shanghai, China. The circuit is best known as the venue for the ...

Shanghai, China Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. The race was the 3rd round of the 2019 Formula One World Championship, and marked the 16th time that the Chinese Grand Prix had been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship. The race also marked the 1000th World Championship race since the first World Championship race was held at the

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

in . This was also the last Chinese Grand Prix until

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

as the 2020–2023 Grands Prix were not held due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the country.

Background

Championship standings before the race

Heading into the race, Valtteri Bottas was leading the Drivers' Championship by one point from

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

. Bottas's team Mercedes was leading the Constructors' Championship by 39 points from

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

Entrants

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

Free practice

Sebastian Vettel Sebastian Vettel (; born 3 July 1987) is a German racing driver who most recently competed in Formula One from to . Vettel won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won consecutively from to with Red Bull, and rema ...

was fastest in the first practice session with Valtteri Bottas fastest in the second practice. Bottas was again fastest in FP3 on Saturday, however the session was brought to a premature end when

Alexander Albon Alexander Albon Ansusinha (; born 23 March 1996) is a Thai and British racing driver who competes under the Thai flag in Formula One for Williams. Born in Westminster and raised in Suffolk, Albon is the son of English racing driver Nigel A ...

lost control of his Toro Rosso and hit the wall on the exit of the final corner, smashing into the wall rear-first with an impact of 49 g. He would not compete in qualifying due to the damage sustained from the accident and therefore started from the pitlane.

Qualifying

The first qualifying session ended with no incidents with Valtteri Bottas setting the fastest lap of the session ahead of

Charles Leclerc Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver who competes in Formula One for Ferrari. Leclerc was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Ferrari, and has won Grands ...

and teammate

. Qualifying ended with the elimination of Lance Stroll, George Russell,

Robert Kubica Robert Józef Kubica (; born 7 December 1984) is a Polish racing driver, racing and rally driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for AF Corse. Kubica competed in Formula One between and , and the World Rally Championship ...

, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alex Albon, the last two of whom failed to set a time in the session. The second qualifying session ended without incident with

setting the fastest lap on the medium compound tyre. Valtteri Bottas,

and

Max Verstappen Max Emilian Verstappen (; born 30 September 1997) is a Dutch and Belgian racing driver who competes under the Dutch flag in Formula One for Red Bull Racing. Verstappen has won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he w ...

also set their laps on the medium compound tyre. Daniil Kvyat,

Sergio Pérez Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990) is a Mexican racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula One from to . Pérez was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Red Bull, and won Gr ...

, Kimi Räikkönen, Carlos Sainz Jr. and

Lando Norris Lando Norris (; born 13 November 1999) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for McLaren. Norris was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with McLaren, and has won Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix ...

were eliminated from qualifying. The third qualifying session ended without incident with most drivers having two chances to set a fastest lap. After the first runs, Valtteri Bottas was quickest with

and

rounding off the top 3. When setting up their second runs,

was overtaken at turn 14 by

and both

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

cars, this prevented him from crossing the line before the end of the session.

Pierre Gasly Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly (; born 7 February 1996) is a French racing driver who competes in Formula One for Alpine. Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri. Born and raised in Normandy, Gasly began competitive kart racing age ...

and both Haas cars were also unable to start a lap before the session ended as a result. At the end of the session, Valtteri Bottas was on pole position 0.023 seconds ahead of

in second.

qualified third. The rest of the top ten consisted of, in qualifying order,

, Daniel Ricciardo,

Nico Hülkenberg Nicolas Hülkenberg (, born 19 August 1987) is a German racing driver who competes in Formula One for Sauber. In endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing, Hülkenberg won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2015 with Por ...

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and Romain Grosjean.

Qualifying classification

;Notes * – Antonio Giovinazzi failed to set a time during qualifying and was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion. * –

did not take part in qualifying after crashing in FP3 and was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion. He was required to start from the pit lane after changing his survival cell. He also received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.

Race

won the race ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas and

. At the start of the race Bottas got a bad start allowing Hamilton to lead into the first corner. At the fourth corner Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz Jr. and

collided which would cause Norris and Kvyat to retire later in the race, despite Kvyat receiving a drive-through penalty as the stewards blamed him for the incident. On lap 11

was ordered by Ferrari to let his teammate Vettel past.

retired on lap 17 with an MGU-K problem. Daniel Ricciardo managed to score his first points of the season and his first points for

got the first fastest lap of his career. It was also Mercedes' third 1–2 finish of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

and the first time that a team has managed a 1–2 in the first three races of a season since

Nigel Mansell Nigel Ernest James Mansell (; born 8 August 1953) is a British former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Mansell won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won 31 Grands Prix across 15 seasons ...

and Riccardo Patrese did so for Williams in .

Race classification

;Notes * – Includes one point for the fastest lap. * –

was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

{{F1GP 10-19 Chinese Chinese Grand Prix Grand Prix Chinese Grand Prix