The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2014 was the 19th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on November 23rd.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Felipe Massa, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Nico Rosberg started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 14th.
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 5-8: 8 stops
- Laps 13-15: 6 stops
- Laps 21-22: 4 stops
- Laps 26-31: 8 stops
- Laps 34-37: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Romain Grosjean's, stopping the clock at 16.120 seconds during his pit stop on lap 1, while the slowest one was was Nico Hülkenberg's, who stopped the clock at 27.445 seconds, 11.325 seconds slower than Grosjean, during his pit stop on lap 15.
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 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 3 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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15Daniil Kvyat
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4Pastor Maldonado
2 stops
-
1Fernando Alonso
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1Jenson Button
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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1Esteban Gutiérrez
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1Lewis Hamilton
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
13Nico Rosberg
-
2Felipe Massa
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4Sergio Pérez
-
-Will Stevens
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6Nico Hülkenberg
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2Kamui Kobayashi
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2Kevin Magnussen
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11Sebastian Vettel
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16Daniel Ricciardo
3 stops
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5Romain Grosjean
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3Adrian Sutil
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2Jean-Éric Vergne
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.5 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Yas Marina 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 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Kamui Kobayashi, who had to retire on lap 42, and Pastor Maldonado, and Daniil Kvyat, both had a power unit failure.
Retired
-
Kamui KobayashiLap 42
Power Unit
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 26
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Daniil KvyatLap 14
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.386 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:40.480. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Williams, with Valtteri Bottas in third position, and Felipe Massa in fourth.
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 10 out of the 13 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
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 5 out of the 8 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.