The Italian Grand Prix 2020 was the 8th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, on September 6th.
Pierre Gasly won the race after starting in the 10th position, followed by Carlos Sainz, and Lance Stroll completing the podium.
Lewis Hamilton started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 7th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 37 pit stops during the race, although only 20 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 26 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 16-20: 6 stops
- Laps 22-22: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Antonio Giovinazzi's, stopping the clock at 23.998 seconds during his pit stop on lap 20, while the slowest one was was Kevin Magnussen's, who stopped the clock at 40.078 seconds, 16.080 seconds slower than Giovinazzi, during his pit stop on lap 1.
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 3 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 2 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Pierre Gasly, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
4Kevin Magnussen
-
5Charles Leclerc
-
5Lance Stroll
2 stops
-
9Nicholas Latifi
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1Kimi Räikkönen
-
9Pierre Gasly
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4Romain Grosjean
-
6Sergio Pérez
-
1Daniel Ricciardo
-
3Valtteri Bottas
-
2Daniil Kvyat
-
12Max Verstappen
-
1Carlos Sainz
-
4Esteban Ocon
-
2Lando Norris
-
5George Russell
-
6Alexander Albon
3 stops
-
6Lewis Hamilton
-
2Antonio Giovinazzi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 5 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.77 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 positions.
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.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 26, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Max Verstappen, and Kevin Magnussen, both had a power unit failure, Charles Leclerc, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 23, and Sebastian Vettel, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 6.
Power Unit
-
Max VerstappenLap 30
-
Kevin MagnussenLap 17
Accident
-
Charles LeclercLap 23
Brakes
-
Sebastian VettelLap 6
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.069 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:18.887. Valtteri Bottas 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 14 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 4 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.