The Belgian Grand Prix 2013 was the 11th round of the 2013 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on August 25th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 43 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-19: 21 stops
- Laps 24-30: 16 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 17.378 seconds during his pit stop on lap 13, while the slowest one was was Pastor Maldonado's, who stopped the clock at 35.228 seconds, 17.850 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 27.
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, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
13Kimi Räikkönen
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1Romain Grosjean
2 stops
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2Nico Hülkenberg
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3Felipe Massa
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15Paul di Resta
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6Jean-Éric Vergne
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2Lewis Hamilton
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3Adrian Sutil
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-Nico Rosberg
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7Fernando Alonso
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2Mark Webber
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2Sergio Pérez
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1Sebastian Vettel
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5Valtteri Bottas
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3Jules Bianchi
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2Giedo van der Garde
-
9Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Jenson Button
3 stops
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-Pastor Maldonado
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3Max Chilton
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7Esteban Gutiérrez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.67 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.33 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 Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, 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, Paul di Resta, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 26, Kimi Räikkönen, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 25, and Charles Pic, who had an oil leak on lap 8.
Collision
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Paul di RestaLap 26
Brakes
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Kimi RäikkönenLap 25
Oil leak
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Charles PicLap 8
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.188 seconds and a final lipe time of 2:01.012. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 14 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. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.