The Belgian Grand Prix 2020 was the 7th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on August 30th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 20 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-11: 15 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pierre Gasly's, stopping the clock at 22.681 seconds during his pit stop on lap 26, while the slowest one was was Charles Leclerc's, who stopped the clock at 30.678 seconds, 7.997 seconds slower than Gasly, during his pit stop on lap 10.
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 1 stop. Only Kevin Magnussen, Charles Leclerc and Nicholas Latifi decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
4Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Romain Grosjean
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
-Daniil Kvyat
-
-Max Verstappen
-
1Esteban Ocon
-
-Lance Stroll
-
3Lando Norris
-
1Alexander Albon
-
2Sergio Pérez
-
4Pierre Gasly
2 stops
-
3Kevin Magnussen
-
1Charles Leclerc
-
3Nicholas Latifi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.86 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.67 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
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, Antonio Giovinazzi, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 9, George Russell, who had an incident with some debris on track on lap 9, and Carlos Sainz, who suffered from problems with the exhaust on lap 0.
Accident
-
Antonio GiovinazziLap 9
Debris
-
George RussellLap 9
Exhaust
-
Carlos SainzLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.511 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:41.252. Valtteri Bottas 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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.