The British Grand Prix 2013 was the 8th round of the 2013 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on June 30th.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Mark Webber, and Fernando Alonso completing the podium.
Lewis Hamilton started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 55 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-16: 23 stops
- Laps 27-38: 22 stops
- Laps 40-42: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 24.092 seconds during his pit stop on lap 35, while the slowest one was was Felipe Massa's, who stopped the clock at 35.210 seconds, 11.118 seconds slower than Vettel, 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
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 2 to 4 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 3 stops strategy.
2 stops
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3Lewis Hamilton
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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3Daniel Ricciardo
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3Jenson Button
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3Jules Bianchi
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1Adrian Sutil
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3Max Chilton
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18Sebastian Vettel
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7Sergio Pérez
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10Jean-Éric Vergne
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4Pastor Maldonado
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4Valtteri Bottas
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3Charles Pic
3 stops
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12Romain Grosjean
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12Paul di Resta
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6Fernando Alonso
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2Mark Webber
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4Giedo van der Garde
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1Nico Rosberg
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4Nico Hülkenberg
4 stops
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3Esteban Gutiérrez
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5Felipe Massa
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 4.83 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 4 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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Silverstone Circuit, 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 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Romain Grosjean, who had to retire on lap 51, Sergio Pérez, who had a wheel problem on lap 46, Sebastian Vettel, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 41, and Jean-Éric Vergne, who experienced issues with a tyre on lap 35.
Retired
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Romain GrosjeanLap 51
Wheel
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Sergio PérezLap 46
Gearbox
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Sebastian VettelLap 41
Tyre
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Jean-Éric VergneLap 35
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.452 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:29.607. Nico Rosberg 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 Red Bull, with Sebastian Vettel in third position, and Mark Webber 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 11 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.