The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix 2020 was the 5th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on August 9th.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 4th position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 41 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 6-9: 6 stops
- Laps 12-15: 5 stops
- Laps 17-20: 5 stops
- Laps 22-24: 5 stops
- Laps 26-26: 4 stops
- Laps 29-35: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Antonio Giovinazzi's, stopping the clock at 27.693 seconds during his pit stop on lap 33, while the slowest one was was Carlos Sainz's, who stopped the clock at 35.864 seconds, 8.171 seconds slower than Giovinazzi, during his pit stop on lap 22.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only 3 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 4 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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4Charles Leclerc
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6Esteban Ocon
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5Kimi Räikkönen
2 stops
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4Alexander Albon
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2Antonio Giovinazzi
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4Pierre Gasly
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3Kevin Magnussen
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1Lando Norris
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2Valtteri Bottas
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-Lewis Hamilton
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3Romain Grosjean
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-Lance Stroll
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6Daniil Kvyat
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Carlos Sainz
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3Max Verstappen
3 stops
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3George Russell
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1Nicholas Latifi
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9Daniel Ricciardo
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4Nico Hülkenberg
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 5 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.42 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 4.25 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option, even if Max Verstappen managed to win the race making 2 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Silverstone Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 1 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Retired
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Kevin MagnussenLap 43
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.063 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:25.154. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.