The Chinese Grand Prix 2014 was the 4th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 20th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Fernando Alonso completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 45 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-15: 18 stops
- Laps 27-28: 4 stops
- Laps 30-34: 13 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 22.246 seconds during his pit stop on lap 34, while the slowest one was was Felipe Massa's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 18.277 seconds, 56.031 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 10.
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 2 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 4 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
11Romain Grosjean
2 stops
-
1Jenson Button
-
9Felipe Massa
-
3Kimi Räikkönen
-
7Sergio Pérez
-
2Fernando Alonso
-
2Nico Hülkenberg
-
8Pastor Maldonado
-
2Jules Bianchi
-
2Sebastian Vettel
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
2Nico Rosberg
-
3Daniil Kvyat
-
2Daniel Ricciardo
-
3Jean-Éric Vergne
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
2Kevin Magnussen
3 stops
-
-Marcus Ericsson
-
-Kamui Kobayashi
-
2Max Chilton
-
1Esteban Gutiérrez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.75 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Romain Grosjean, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 28, and Adrian Sutil, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 5.
Gearbox
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Romain GrosjeanLap 28
Engine
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Adrian SutilLap 5
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.595 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:53.860. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Daniel Ricciardo.
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 12 out of the 16 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 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.