The Singapore Grand Prix 2011 was the 14th round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore, on September 25th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race from the pole, followed by Jenson Button, and Mark Webber completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 69 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-17: 26 stops
- Laps 24-31: 22 stops
- Laps 44-49: 13 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jaime Alguersuari's, stopping the clock at 24.299 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Daniel Ricciardo's, who stopped the clock at 44.170 seconds, 19.871 seconds slower than Alguersuari, 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
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 2 to 5 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 3 stops strategy.
2 stops
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15Michael Schumacher
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1Adrian Sutil
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1Rubens Barrichello
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1Sergio Pérez
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4Jérôme d'Ambrosio
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4Paul di Resta
3 stops
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4Daniel Ricciardo
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-Nico Rosberg
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1Fernando Alonso
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2Pastor Maldonado
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2Sébastien Buemi
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3Heikki Kovalainen
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1Mark Webber
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-Sebastian Vettel
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1Jenson Button
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2Jarno Trulli
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1Vitaly Petrov
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5Jaime Alguersuari
4 stops
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-Bruno Senna
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3Felipe Massa
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4Vitantonio Liuzzi
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3Kamui Kobayashi
5 stops
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1Lewis Hamilton
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.8 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.3 positions on average, the ones on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions, while those on a 5 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 3 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, 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 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Jaime Alguersuari, Michael Schumacher, and Timo Glock, all of whom had to retire due to an accident, and Jarno Trulli, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 47.
Accident
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Jaime AlguersuariLap 56
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Michael SchumacherLap 28
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Timo GlockLap 9
Gearbox
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Jarno TrulliLap 47
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.351 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:44.381. Mark Webber was right behind him, helping Red Bull score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by McLaren, with Jenson Button in third position, and Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Ferraris were right behind them, with Fernando Alonso in fith position, and Felipe Massa in sixth.
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 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.