The Austrian Grand Prix 2014 was the 8th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on June 22nd.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Felipe Massa started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
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 8-15: 14 stops
- Laps 26-29: 6 stops
- Laps 39-41: 7 stops
- Laps 43-45: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 21.133 seconds during his pit stop on lap 15, while the slowest one was was Esteban Gutiérrez's, who stopped the clock at 55.222 seconds, 34.089 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 12.
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 4 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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15Daniil Kvyat
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3Kamui Kobayashi
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4Max Chilton
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3Jules Bianchi
2 stops
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8Romain Grosjean
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6Jean-Éric Vergne
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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1Kevin Magnussen
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3Daniel Ricciardo
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2Nico Rosberg
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3Adrian Sutil
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7Lewis Hamilton
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3Felipe Massa
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1Fernando Alonso
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1Valtteri Bottas
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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9Sebastian Vettel
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1Pastor Maldonado
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-Jenson Button
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2Marcus Ericsson
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9Sergio Pérez
3 stops
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2Esteban Gutiérrez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 3.33 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.47 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 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 Nico Rosberg 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 Red Bull Ring, 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, Jean-Éric Vergne, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 59, Sebastian Vettel, who suffered from electrical problems on lap 34, and Daniil Kvyat, who suffered a suspension problem on lap 24.
Brakes
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Jean-Éric VergneLap 59
Electrical
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Sebastian VettelLap 34
Suspension
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Daniil KvyatLap 24
Qualifying
Felipe Massa managed to get the pole position by 0.087 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:08.759. Valtteri Bottas was right behind him, helping Williams 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 15 out of the 16 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.