The Chinese Grand Prix 2011 was the 3rd round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 17th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, and Mark Webber completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 18th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 58 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-12: 8 stops
- Laps 14-21: 17 stops
- Laps 23-26: 7 stops
- Laps 30-40: 20 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 13.900 seconds during his pit stop on lap 48, while the slowest one was was Timo Glock's, who stopped the clock at 33.827 seconds, 19.927 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 39.
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, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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17Jaime Alguersuari
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1Narain Karthikeyan
2 stops
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3Paul di Resta
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1Sebastian Vettel
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3Kamui Kobayashi
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-Felipe Massa
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2Fernando Alonso
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2Rubens Barrichello
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1Vitaly Petrov
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4Nick Heidfeld
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3Heikki Kovalainen
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1Jarno Trulli
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1Jérôme d'Ambrosio
3 stops
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1Vitantonio Liuzzi
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6Michael Schumacher
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15Mark Webber
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1Pastor Maldonado
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1Nico Rosberg
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5Sébastien Buemi
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2Jenson Button
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2Lewis Hamilton
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4Adrian Sutil
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1Timo Glock
4 stops
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5Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.82 positions, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.2 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 5 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Shanghai International 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 1 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Wheel
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Jaime AlguersuariLap 9
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.715 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:33.706. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Jenson Button.
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 9 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 6 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.