The Japanese Grand Prix 2011 was the 15th round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan, on October 9th.
Jenson Button won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 65 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-13: 19 stops
- Laps 15-25: 24 stops
- Laps 33-39: 19 stops
The fastest pit stop was Nico Rosberg's, stopping the clock at 20.575 seconds during his pit stop on lap 12, while the slowest one was was Vitantonio Liuzzi's, who stopped the clock at 28.244 seconds, 7.669 seconds slower than Rosberg, 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
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 5 drivers tried a 2 stops.
The race winner, Jenson Button, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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9Sébastien Buemi
2 stops
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6Kamui Kobayashi
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7Bruno Senna
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1Jaime Alguersuari
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1Vitaly Petrov
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9Sergio Pérez
3 stops
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2Lewis Hamilton
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-Adrian Sutil
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1Vitantonio Liuzzi
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2Sebastian Vettel
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2Michael Schumacher
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1Jenson Button
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3Fernando Alonso
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2Mark Webber
-
-Paul di Resta
-
-Heikki Kovalainen
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3Felipe Massa
-
-Jarno Trulli
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
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4Rubens Barrichello
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13Nico Rosberg
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1Timo Glock
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1Jérôme d'Ambrosio
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-Pastor Maldonado
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.4 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.61 positions.
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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Suzuka Circuit, 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 1 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Wheel
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Sébastien BuemiLap 11
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.009 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:30.466. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Jenson Button.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.