The British Grand Prix 2017 was the 10th round of the 2017 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on July 16th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 27 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 18-20: 4 stops
- Laps 22-28: 10 stops
The fastest pit stop was Daniil Kvyat's, stopping the clock at 22.895 seconds during his pit stop on lap 9, while the slowest one was was Daniil Kvyat's, who stopped the clock at 45.538 seconds, 22.643 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 1 stop. Only 5 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 2 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
1Esteban Ocon
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2Fernando Alonso
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3Sergio Pérez
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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-Lewis Hamilton
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4Felipe Massa
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3Stoffel Vandoorne
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4Marcus Ericsson
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7Valtteri Bottas
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14Daniel Ricciardo
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4Kevin Magnussen
2 stops
-
4Sebastian Vettel
-
-Max Verstappen
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1Lance Stroll
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3Romain Grosjean
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1Kimi Räikkönen
3 stops
-
3Daniil Kvyat
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-Pascal Wehrlein
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.5 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.8 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.5 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop 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 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Fernando Alonso, who had a power unit failure on lap 32, Carlos Sainz, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 0, and Jolyon Palmer, who experienced an hydraulic malfunction on lap 0.
Power Unit
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Fernando AlonsoLap 32
Collision damage
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Carlos SainzLap 0
Hydraulics
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Jolyon PalmerLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.547 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:26.600. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Kimi Räikkönen.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.