The Canadian Grand Prix 2013 was the 7th round of the 2013 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada, on June 9th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race from the pole, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 44 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 11-14: 9 stops
- Laps 16-17: 4 stops
- Laps 36-43: 12 stops
- Laps 46-49: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pastor Maldonado's, stopping the clock at 14.446 seconds during his pit stop on lap 17, while the slowest one was was Giedo van der Garde's, who stopped the clock at 29.056 seconds, 14.610 seconds slower than Maldonado, during his pit stop on lap 38.
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 4 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
1Kimi Räikkönen
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2Jenson Button
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1Max Chilton
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2Jules Bianchi
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10Paul di Resta
2 stops
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-Charles Pic
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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12Nico Hülkenberg
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1Mark Webber
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1Jean-Éric Vergne
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1Sergio Pérez
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11Valtteri Bottas
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-Sebastian Vettel
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4Fernando Alonso
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8Felipe Massa
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1Lewis Hamilton
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5Esteban Gutiérrez
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9Romain Grosjean
3 stops
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2Adrian Sutil
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3Pastor Maldonado
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1Nico Rosberg
4 stops
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1Giedo van der Garde
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 3.2 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.73 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 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, 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 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 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, Esteban Gutiérrez, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 63, and Nico Hülkenberg, and Giedo van der Garde, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Accident
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Esteban GutiérrezLap 63
Collision
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Nico HülkenbergLap 45
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Giedo van der GardeLap 43
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.087 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.425. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Lewis Hamilton.
Track evolution
The conditions of the track worsened from Q1 to Q2, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q1 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.