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The German Grand Prix 2014 was the 10th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Germany, on July 20th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 20th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 55 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 12-16: 13 stops
- Laps 31-35: 11 stops
- Laps 37-42: 7 stops
- Laps 45-50: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Daniel Ricciardo's, stopping the clock at 18.868 seconds during his pit stop on lap 46, while the slowest one was was Marcus Ericsson's, who stopped the clock at 27.495 seconds, 8.627 seconds slower than Ricciardo, during his pit stop on lap 3.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 6 drivers tried a 2 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
7Romain Grosjean
2 stops
-
12Daniil Kvyat
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2Nico Hülkenberg
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
6Pastor Maldonado
-
2Jules Bianchi
3 stops
-
5Kevin Magnussen
-
4Marcus Ericsson
-
2Fernando Alonso
-
3Jenson Button
-
1Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Jean-Éric Vergne
-
2Sebastian Vettel
-
-Sergio Pérez
-
2Esteban Gutiérrez
-
3Kamui Kobayashi
-
4Adrian Sutil
-
4Max Chilton
-
1Kimi Räikkönen
-
17Lewis Hamilton
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 2.46 positions on average.
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, even if Nico Rosberg 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 Hockenheimring, 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 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Adrian Sutil, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 47, Daniil Kvyat, who had an oil leak on lap 44, Romain Grosjean, who suffered a water leak on lap 26, and Felipe Massa, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 0.
Brakes
-
Adrian SutilLap 47
Oil leak
-
Daniil KvyatLap 44
Water leak
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 26
Collision
-
Felipe MassaLap 0
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.219 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:16.540. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Valtteri Bottas.
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 13 out of the 15 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.