The Brazilian Grand Prix 2014 was the 18th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil, on November 9th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Felipe Massa completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 52 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 4-9: 14 stops
- Laps 24-28: 14 stops
- Laps 45-52: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jenson Button's, stopping the clock at 22.620 seconds during his pit stop on lap 27, while the slowest one was was Valtteri Bottas's, who stopped the clock at 35.284 seconds, 12.664 seconds slower than Button, during his pit stop on lap 26.
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 3 stops. Only Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 3 stops strategy.
2 stops
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9Daniel Ricciardo
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3Kimi Räikkönen
3 stops
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4Pastor Maldonado
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-Felipe Massa
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3Sergio Pérez
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6Valtteri Bottas
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1Jenson Button
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1Sebastian Vettel
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-Nico Rosberg
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2Kevin Magnussen
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2Fernando Alonso
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-Lewis Hamilton
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3Esteban Gutiérrez
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2Jean-Éric Vergne
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4Nico Hülkenberg
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6Daniil Kvyat
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3Adrian Sutil
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3Romain Grosjean
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.6 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, even if Nico Rosberg managed to win the race making 3 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Suspension
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Daniel RicciardoLap 39
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.033 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:10.023. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Williams, with Felipe Massa in third position, and Valtteri Bottas 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 7 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.