The Belgian Grand Prix 2014 was the 12th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on August 24th.
Daniel Ricciardo won the race after starting in the 5th position, followed by Nico Rosberg, who originally had the pole position, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 46 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-15: 18 stops
- Laps 21-25: 10 stops
- Laps 27-31: 9 stops
- Laps 34-35: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Kevin Magnussen's, stopping the clock at 22.414 seconds during his pit stop on lap 23, while the slowest one was was Nico Rosberg's, who stopped the clock at 29.997 seconds, 7.583 seconds slower than Magnussen, during his pit stop on lap 8.
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 Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Daniel Ricciardo, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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2Jules Bianchi
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4Kimi Räikkönen
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5Sergio Pérez
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2Daniil Kvyat
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8Nico Hülkenberg
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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5Kevin Magnussen
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5Marcus Ericsson
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3Max Chilton
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3Valtteri Bottas
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3Fernando Alonso
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4Jenson Button
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5Esteban Gutiérrez
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1Jean-Éric Vergne
3 stops
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5Romain Grosjean
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17Lewis Hamilton
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1Nico Rosberg
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4Felipe Massa
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2Sebastian Vettel
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-Adrian Sutil
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.77 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.75 positions.
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 were some incidents during the race, with 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Jules Bianchi, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 39, Lewis Hamilton, and Romain Grosjean, both had to retire, Pastor Maldonado, who suffered from an unidentified mechanical problem on lap 1, and André Lotterer, who had a power unit failure on lap 1.
Gearbox
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Jules BianchiLap 39
Retired
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Lewis HamiltonLap 38
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Romain GrosjeanLap 33
Mechanical
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 1
Power Unit
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André LottererLap 1
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.228 seconds and a final lipe time of 2:05.591. 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 13 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 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.