The Belgian Grand Prix 2015 was the 11th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on August 23rd.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Romain Grosjean completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 38 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 7-16: 18 stops
- Laps 20-21: 8 stops
- Laps 27-32: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 17.343 seconds during his pit stop on lap 15, while the slowest one was was Fernando Alonso's, who stopped the clock at 26.103 seconds, 8.760 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 20.
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 4 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
13Daniel Ricciardo
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4Sebastian Vettel
2 stops
-
7Carlos Sainz
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1Sergio Pérez
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6Romain Grosjean
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8Daniil Kvyat
-
-Felipe Massa
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3Marcus Ericsson
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3Felipe Nasr
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9Kimi Räikkönen
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
-Lewis Hamilton
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2Roberto Merhi
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1Will Stevens
3 stops
-
6Valtteri Bottas
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7Fernando Alonso
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10Max Verstappen
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5Jenson Button
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.64 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 7.33 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton 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 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 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz, and Daniel Ricciardo, all of whom had a power unit failure, Sebastian Vettel, who experienced issues with a tyre on lap 42, Pastor Maldonado, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 2, and Nico Hülkenberg, who suffered a power loss on lap 0.
Power Unit
-
Valtteri BottasLap 43
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Carlos SainzLap 32
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Daniel RicciardoLap 19
Tyre
-
Sebastian VettelLap 42
Engine
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 2
Power loss
-
Nico HülkenbergLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.458 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:47.197. Nico Rosberg 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 11 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 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.