The Belgian Grand Prix 2018 was the 13th round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on August 26th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Max Verstappen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 34 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-2: 18 stops
- Laps 21-26: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Brendon Hartley's, stopping the clock at 18.084 seconds during his pit stop on lap 1, while the slowest one was was Kimi Räikkönen's, who stopped the clock at 35.451 seconds, 17.367 seconds slower than Hartley, during his pit stop on lap 7.
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 Valtteri Bottas and Stoffel Vandoorne decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
-
1Lewis Hamilton
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11Kimi Räikkönen
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1Sebastian Vettel
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2Romain Grosjean
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1Sergio Pérez
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1Kevin Magnussen
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3Marcus Ericsson
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4Max Verstappen
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3Carlos Sainz
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3Esteban Ocon
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4Lance Stroll
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1Pierre Gasly
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3Brendon Hartley
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4Sergey Sirotkin
3 stops
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15Valtteri Bottas
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3Stoffel Vandoorne
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.85 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 9 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 Sebastian Vettel 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 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Daniel Ricciardo, who had to retire on lap 28, Kimi Räikkönen, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 8, and Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and Nico Hülkenberg, all of whom had to retire due to an accident.
Retired
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Daniel RicciardoLap 28
Brakes
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Kimi RäikkönenLap 8
Accident
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Charles LeclercLap 0
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Fernando AlonsoLap 0
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Nico HülkenbergLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.726 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:58.179. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Force India, with Esteban Ocon in third position, and Sergio Pérez 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 12 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. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.