The Hungarian Grand Prix 2014 was the 11th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, on July 27th.
Daniel Ricciardo won the race after starting in the 4th position, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 22nd position of the grid.
Nico Rosberg started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
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 8-9: 20 stops
- Laps 37-39: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 21.608 seconds during his pit stop on lap 33, while the slowest one was was Kamui Kobayashi's, who stopped the clock at 34.086 seconds, 12.478 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 8.
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 3 stops.
The race winner, Daniel Ricciardo, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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11Nico Hülkenberg
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7Sergio Pérez
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4Esteban Gutiérrez
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7Romain Grosjean
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1Kamui Kobayashi
2 stops
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1Jean-Éric Vergne
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-Adrian Sutil
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19Lewis Hamilton
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10Kimi Räikkönen
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4Daniil Kvyat
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2Max Chilton
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5Sebastian Vettel
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3Fernando Alonso
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9Kevin Magnussen
3 stops
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3Jenson Button
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3Daniel Ricciardo
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1Felipe Massa
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7Pastor Maldonado
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3Nico Rosberg
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5Valtteri Bottas
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-Jules Bianchi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3.67 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy didn't gain or lose any positions on average.
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, even if Daniel Ricciardo managed to win the race making 3 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Hungaroring, 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 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Esteban Gutiérrez, and Kamui Kobayashi, both had to retire, and Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Ericsson, all of whom had to retire due to an accident.
Retired
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Esteban GutiérrezLap 33
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Kamui KobayashiLap 26
Accident
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Sergio PérezLap 23
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Nico HülkenbergLap 16
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Romain GrosjeanLap 11
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Marcus EricssonLap 8
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.486 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:22.715. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 15 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 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.