The Canadian Grand Prix 2011 was the 7th round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, on June 12th.
Jenson Button won the race after starting in the 7th position, followed by Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, and Mark Webber completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 75 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 15-21: 21 stops
- Laps 33-37: 24 stops
- Laps 49-53: 23 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jenson Button's, stopping the clock at 14.501 seconds during his pit stop on lap 13, while the slowest one was was Jarno Trulli's, who stopped the clock at 51.684 seconds, 37.183 seconds slower than Button, during his pit stop on lap 19.
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 6 stops.
The race winner, Jenson Button, was on a 6 stops strategy.
1 stop
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4Heikki Kovalainen
2 stops
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5Timo Glock
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11Nick Heidfeld
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5Pedro de la Rosa
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6Kamui Kobayashi
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5Vitaly Petrov
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8Narain Karthikeyan
3 stops
-
7Vitantonio Liuzzi
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20Fernando Alonso
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16Jaime Alguersuari
-
1Jarno Trulli
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Mark Webber
4 stops
-
7Rubens Barrichello
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7Adrian Sutil
-
5Nico Rosberg
-
5Sébastien Buemi
-
4Michael Schumacher
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3Felipe Massa
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7Paul di Resta
5 stops
-
7Pastor Maldonado
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8Jérôme d'Ambrosio
6 stops
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6Jenson Button
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 5.8 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 4.8 positions on average, the ones on a 4 stops strategy gained 1.6 positions on average, the ones on a 5 stops strategy gained 8 positions on average, while those on a 6 stops strategy gained 6 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, even if Jenson Button managed to win the race making 6 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 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 7 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Paul di Resta, Nick Heidfeld, and Adrian Sutil, all of whom had to retire due to an accident, Pastor Maldonado, who had to retire on lap 61, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and Heikki Kovalainen, who had a transmission problem on lap 28.
Accident
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Paul di RestaLap 67
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Nick HeidfeldLap 55
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Adrian SutilLap 49
Retired
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 61
Collision
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Fernando AlonsoLap 36
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Lewis HamiltonLap 7
Transmission
-
Heikki KovalainenLap 28
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.185 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:13.014. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Fernando Alonso.
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 15 out of the 17 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.