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The Korean Grand Prix 2011 was the 16th round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Korean International Circuit in Yeongam County, Korea, on October 16th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Mark Webber completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 50 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-17: 24 stops
- Laps 33-38: 14 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pastor Maldonado's, stopping the clock at 13.984 seconds during his pit stop on lap 22, while the slowest one was was Jérôme d'Ambrosio's, who stopped the clock at 26.905 seconds, 12.921 seconds slower than Maldonado, during his pit stop on lap 16.
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 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 4 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
15Vitaly Petrov
-
12Michael Schumacher
2 stops
-
6Rubens Barrichello
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1Paul di Resta
-
3Jarno Trulli
-
1Jenson Button
-
1Nico Rosberg
-
2Bruno Senna
-
5Heikki Kovalainen
-
1Mark Webber
-
1Felipe Massa
-
4Sébastien Buemi
-
1Lewis Hamilton
-
1Fernando Alonso
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
1Adrian Sutil
-
3Timo Glock
-
5Daniel Ricciardo
-
2Jérôme d'Ambrosio
-
4Jaime Alguersuari
3 stops
-
2Vitantonio Liuzzi
-
1Kamui Kobayashi
-
6Pastor Maldonado
-
1Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.72 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.67 positions.
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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Korean International 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 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Pastor Maldonado, who had a problem with the clutch on lap 30, and Vitaly Petrov, and Michael Schumacher, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Clutch
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 30
Collision
-
Vitaly PetrovLap 16
-
Michael SchumacherLap 15
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.222 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:35.820. 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 16 out of the 17 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.