The British Grand Prix 2015 was the 9th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on July 5th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 33 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 11-14: 4 stops
- Laps 17-21: 9 stops
- Laps 36-38: 5 stops
- Laps 41-45: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Daniil Kvyat's, stopping the clock at 28.347 seconds during his pit stop on lap 18, while the slowest one was was Fernando Alonso's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 11.178 seconds, 42.831 seconds slower than Kvyat, during his pit stop on lap 1.
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 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 2 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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6Carlos Sainz
2 stops
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5Daniel Ricciardo
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3Sebastian Vettel
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1Daniil Kvyat
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-Lewis Hamilton
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2Nico Hülkenberg
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1Felipe Massa
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-Nico Rosberg
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2Sergio Pérez
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1Valtteri Bottas
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6Will Stevens
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8Roberto Merhi
3 stops
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7Fernando Alonso
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3Kimi Räikkönen
4 stops
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4Marcus Ericsson
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 4 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 2 stops 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 Silverstone Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 7 drivers out of the original 20 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, Carlos Sainz, and Daniel Ricciardo, both suffered from electrical problems, Max Verstappen, who lost control and spun off the track on lap 3, Pastor Maldonado, Jenson Button, and Romain Grosjean, all of whom retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Felipe Nasr, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 0.
Electrical
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Carlos SainzLap 31
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Daniel RicciardoLap 21
Spun off
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Max VerstappenLap 3
Collision
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 0
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Jenson ButtonLap 0
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Romain GrosjeanLap 0
Gearbox
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Felipe NasrLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.113 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:32.248. 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 Williams, with Felipe Massa in third position, and Valtteri Bottas in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Ferraris were right behind them, with Kimi Räikkönen in fith position, and Sebastian Vettel in sixth.
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 15 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 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.