The British Grand Prix 2018 was the 10th round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on July 8th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 28 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 17-21: 11 stops
- Laps 24-26: 4 stops
- Laps 32-33: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lance Stroll's, stopping the clock at 27.774 seconds during his pit stop on lap 30, while the slowest one was was Kimi Räikkönen's, who stopped the clock at 38.573 seconds, 10.799 seconds slower than Stroll, during his pit stop on lap 13.
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 1 to 2 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
10Charles Leclerc
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3Esteban Ocon
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5Nico Hülkenberg
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-Valtteri Bottas
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4Sergey Sirotkin
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3Marcus Ericsson
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1Lewis Hamilton
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2Kevin Magnussen
-
8Romain Grosjean
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7Lance Stroll
2 stops
-
5Fernando Alonso
-
-Kimi Räikkönen
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2Sergio Pérez
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10Max Verstappen
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1Carlos Sainz
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Pierre Gasly
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6Stoffel Vandoorne
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.29 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.29 positions on average.
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, even if Sebastian Vettel managed to win the race making 2 stops.
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 were some incidents during the race, with 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Brendon Hartley, who had a power unit failure on lap 1, Max Verstappen, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 46, Romain Grosjean, and Carlos Sainz, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, Marcus Ericsson, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 31, and Charles Leclerc, who experienced issues with a tyre on lap 18.
Power Unit
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Brendon HartleyLap 1
Brakes
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Max VerstappenLap 46
Collision
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Romain GrosjeanLap 37
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Carlos SainzLap 37
Accident
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Marcus EricssonLap 31
Tyre
-
Charles LeclercLap 18
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.044 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.892. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 14 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 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.