The Italian Grand Prix 2018 was the 14th round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, on September 2nd.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, who originally had the pole position, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 21 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-1: 4 stops
- Laps 34-39: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lewis Hamilton's, stopping the clock at 23.728 seconds during his pit stop on lap 28, while the slowest one was was Kevin Magnussen's, who stopped the clock at 38.563 seconds, 14.835 seconds slower than Hamilton, during his pit stop on lap 4.
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 1 stop. Only Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hülkenberg and Marcus Ericsson decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
2Daniel Ricciardo
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5Kevin Magnussen
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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14Romain Grosjean
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5Stoffel Vandoorne
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-Max Verstappen
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2Lewis Hamilton
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5Pierre Gasly
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4Charles Leclerc
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1Lance Stroll
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1Valtteri Bottas
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2Sergey Sirotkin
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2Esteban Ocon
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7Sergio Pérez
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1Carlos Sainz
2 stops
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2Sebastian Vettel
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7Nico Hülkenberg
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3Marcus Ericsson
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.92 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.67 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 Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 1 stop.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, 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 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Daniel Ricciardo, and Fernando Alonso, both suffered an engine malfunction, and Brendon Hartley, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 0.
Engine
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Daniel RicciardoLap 23
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Fernando AlonsoLap 9
Brakes
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Brendon HartleyLap 0
There was also action outise of the track itself, and the stwearts decided to disqualify Romain Grosjean at the end of the race.
Disqualified
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Romain GrosjeanLap 53
Qualifying
Kimi Räikkönen managed to get the pole position by 0.161 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:19.119. Sebastian Vettel was right behind him, helping Ferrari score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton in third position, and Valtteri Bottas in fourth.
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 13 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 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.