The Russian Grand Prix 2014 was the 16th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia, on October 12th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 23 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 20-27: 14 stops
The fastest pit stop was Kevin Magnussen's, stopping the clock at 29.736 seconds during his pit stop on lap 26, while the slowest one was was Fernando Alonso's, who stopped the clock at 35.112 seconds, 5.376 seconds slower than Magnussen, during his pit stop on lap 25.
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 Felipe Massa, Daniil Kvyat 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
-
-Nico Rosberg
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1Max Chilton
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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2Adrian Sutil
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2Romain Grosjean
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3Pastor Maldonado
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-Jenson Button
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4Jean-Éric Vergne
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5Nico Hülkenberg
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1Fernando Alonso
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2Sergio Pérez
-
-Valtteri Bottas
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6Kevin Magnussen
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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-Lewis Hamilton
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2Sebastian Vettel
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2Esteban Gutiérrez
2 stops
-
7Felipe Massa
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9Daniil Kvyat
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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 0.44 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.67 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Sochi Autodrom, 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 2 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Kamui Kobayashi, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 21, and Max Chilton, who suffered a suspension problem on lap 9.
Brakes
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Kamui KobayashiLap 21
Suspension
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Max ChiltonLap 9
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.2 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:38.513. Nico Rosberg 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 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 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.