The Singapore Grand Prix 2013 was the 13th round of the 2013 F1 season, and took place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore, on September 22nd.
Sebastian Vettel won the race from the pole, followed by Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 13th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 54 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-17: 22 stops
- Laps 23-26: 16 stops
- Laps 39-44: 13 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 28.709 seconds during his pit stop on lap 14, while the slowest one was was Romain Grosjean's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 13.009 seconds, 44.300 seconds slower than Pérez, during his pit stop on lap 33.
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 1 to 4 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
13Daniel Ricciardo
2 stops
-
10Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Esteban Gutiérrez
-
11Mark Webber
-
1Jenson Button
-
2Nico Hülkenberg
-
5Fernando Alonso
-
6Sergio Pérez
-
2Nico Rosberg
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
-Sebastian Vettel
-
3Paul di Resta
3 stops
-
2Jean-Éric Vergne
-
-Charles Pic
-
5Max Chilton
-
-Felipe Massa
-
5Adrian Sutil
-
4Giedo van der Garde
-
3Valtteri Bottas
-
18Romain Grosjean
-
7Pastor Maldonado
4 stops
-
3Jules Bianchi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2.22 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 2.75 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average.
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, even if Sebastian Vettel managed to win the race making 2 stops.
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 race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Mark Webber, who had a loss of water pressure on lap 60, Paul di Resta, and Daniel Ricciardo, both had to retire due to an accident, and Romain Grosjean, who had a pneumatic failure on lap 37.
Water pressure
-
Mark WebberLap 60
Accident
-
Paul di RestaLap 54
-
Daniel RicciardoLap 23
Pneumatics
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 37
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.091 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:42.841. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Nico Rosberg.
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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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 8 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.