The Singapore Grand Prix 2014 was the 14th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore, on September 21st.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium.
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 8-16: 20 stops
- Laps 22-27: 14 stops
- Laps 29-31: 12 stops
- Laps 43-46: 5 stops
The fastest pit stop was Jenson Button's, stopping the clock at 28.627 seconds during his pit stop on lap 31, while the slowest one was was Max Chilton's, who stopped the clock at 37.975 seconds, 9.348 seconds slower than Button, during his pit stop on lap 18.
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, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
6Esteban Gutiérrez
2 stops
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1Felipe Massa
-
3Valtteri Bottas
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2Sebastian Vettel
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
-
7Marcus Ericsson
-
7Jenson Button
3 stops
-
2Adrian Sutil
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4Nico Hülkenberg
-
4Daniil Kvyat
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3Romain Grosjean
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1Kimi Räikkönen
-
6Jean-Éric Vergne
-
1Fernando Alonso
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Kevin Magnussen
-
3Jules Bianchi
-
4Max Chilton
4 stops
-
6Pastor Maldonado
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8Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.4 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.5 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 7 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 4 stops strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 3 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 were some incidents during the race, with 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Jenson Button, who had to retire on lap 52, Adrian Sutil, who had a loss of water pressure on lap 40, Esteban Gutiérrez, and Nico Rosberg, both suffered from electrical problems, and Kamui Kobayashi, who had a power unit failure on lap 0.
Retired
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Jenson ButtonLap 52
Water pressure
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Adrian SutilLap 40
Electrical
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Esteban GutiérrezLap 17
-
Nico RosbergLap 13
Power Unit
-
Kamui KobayashiLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.007 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:45.681. Nico Rosberg was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo in third position, and Sebastian Vettel in fourth.
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 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.