The Bahrain Grand Prix 2020 was the 15th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, on November 29th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Alexander Albon completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 57 pit stops during the race, although only 38 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 1 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 16-21: 14 stops
- Laps 33-40: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Alexander Albon's, stopping the clock at 23.848 seconds during his pit stop on lap 34, while the slowest one was was Kevin Magnussen's, who stopped the clock at 38.297 seconds, 14.449 seconds slower than Albon, during his pit stop on lap 3.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 1 driver tried a 2 stops, and 3 drivers tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
6Lance Stroll
2 stops
-
2Pierre Gasly
3 stops
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
2Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Sebastian Vettel
-
13Sergio Pérez
-
1Daniel Ricciardo
-
1Daniil Kvyat
-
10Carlos Sainz
-
2Esteban Ocon
-
-Antonio Giovinazzi
-
2Charles Leclerc
-
5Lando Norris
-
2George Russell
-
1Alexander Albon
-
6Nicholas Latifi
4 stops
-
6Valtteri Bottas
-
1Kevin Magnussen
-
1Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.69 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1.33 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 3 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 1, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
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, Sergio Pérez, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 53, and Lance Stroll, and Romain Grosjean, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Engine
-
Sergio PérezLap 53
Collision
-
Lance StrollLap 2
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.289 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:27.264. Valtteri Bottas 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 Red Bull, with Max Verstappen in third position, and Alexander Albon 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 8 out of the 14 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.