Formula 1: Mercedes make history with hot start to 2019 season

By Asher Fair | Apr 28, 2019

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - APRIL 28: Top three finishers Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Mercedes GP, Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP and Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Ferrari celebrate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on April 28, 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /

With their hot start to the 2019 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport pulled off what had never been pulled off before.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas opened up the 2019 Formula 1 season by winning the Australian Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in second place. Hamilton then won the season’s second and third races, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix, over Bottas in second.

As a result, Mercedes became the first team since Williams in the 1992 season to open up a season with three consecutive 1-2 finishes.

Nigel Mansell won each of the 1992 season’s first three races driving for Williams while his teammate, Riccardo Patrese, finished in second place in all three of them. Mansell won the season’s fourth race, but Patrese was forced to retire after spinning out.

Entering the fourth race of the 2019 season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, no team in Formula 1 history had opened up a season by recording four consecutive 1-2 finishes, but Mercedes had a chance to pull it off in this race.

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Bottas took the pole position for the race and Hamilton qualified in second place despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari were the clear favorites heading into the qualifying session, further boosting the chances for the Brackley-based team to pull off this historic feat.

Ferrari attempted to spoil Mercedes’ chances of pulling off this feat by banking on a safety car that would have allowed Charles Leclerc, who was on an alternate tire strategy from the start of the race as a result of the fact that he crashed in the second of three rounds of qualifying while on medium tires, to challenge for the victory late in the race on newer and softer tires, but that safety car never came.

Leclerc ended up leading 19 of the race’s 51 laps around the 20-turn, 3.73-mile (6.003-kilometer) Baku City Circuit temporary street circuit in Azadliq Square, Baku, Azerbaijan. Bottas went on to lead 31 laps, and he held on to win the race by 1.524 seconds over Hamilton, who led the other lap, in second place.

As a result, through the first four races of the 2019 season, Mercedes have recorded four 1-2 finishes, something that had never previously been done to open up a Formula 1 season.

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Will Mercedes record their fifth consecutive 1-2 finish to open up the 2019 Formula 1 season in the season’s next race, the Spanish Grand Prix? Lewis Hamilton won this race last season ahead of Valtteri Bottas in second place, so it is very possible. This race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 12, and it is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET.

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