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The Eifel Grand Prix 2020 was the 11th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany, on October 11th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium.
Valtteri Bottas started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he had a power unit failure, and had to retire on lap 18th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 33 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-11: 4 stops
- Laps 13-17: 8 stops
- Laps 28-30: 6 stops
- Laps 33-36: 4 stops
- Laps 44-45: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lando Norris's, stopping the clock at 21.991 seconds during his pit stop on lap 29, while the slowest one was was Kimi Räikkönen's, who stopped the clock at 33.016 seconds, 11.025 seconds slower than Norris, during his pit stop on lap 44.
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 Alexander Albon, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean and Lando Norris decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
12Alexander Albon
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3George Russell
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18Valtteri Bottas
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7Romain Grosjean
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8Lando Norris
2 stops
-
7Kimi Räikkönen
-
3Charles Leclerc
-
-Sebastian Vettel
-
2Kevin Magnussen
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4Nicholas Latifi
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4Antonio Giovinazzi
-
1Lewis Hamilton
-
3Daniel Ricciardo
-
1Max Verstappen
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2Daniil Kvyat
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5Sergio Pérez
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5Carlos Sainz
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12Nico Hülkenberg
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6Pierre Gasly
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 7 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3.21 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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Nürburgring, 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 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Lando Norris, and Valtteri Bottas, both had a power unit failure, Alexander Albon, who had a problem with the radiator of the car on lap 23, Esteban Ocon, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 22, and George Russell, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 12.
Power Unit
-
Lando NorrisLap 42
-
Valtteri BottasLap 18
Radiator
-
Alexander AlbonLap 23
Gearbox
-
Esteban OconLap 22
Collision
-
George RussellLap 12
Qualifying
Valtteri Bottas managed to get the pole position by 0.256 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.269. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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 4 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.