The Spanish Grand Prix 2011 was the 5th round of the 2011 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 22nd.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button completing the podium.
Mark Webber started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 77 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 7-11: 13 stops
- Laps 13-21: 15 stops
- Laps 23-30: 16 stops
- Laps 34-36: 8 stops
- Laps 41-44: 7 stops
- Laps 47-51: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Nico Rosberg's, stopping the clock at 19.534 seconds during his pit stop on lap 27, while the slowest one was was Rubens Barrichello's, who stopped the clock at 29.936 seconds, 10.402 seconds slower than Rosberg, during his pit stop on lap 11.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 7 drivers tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 4 stops strategy.
1 stop
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3Vitantonio Liuzzi
3 stops
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4Kamui Kobayashi
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3Sergio Pérez
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3Sébastien Buemi
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4Michael Schumacher
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5Vitaly Petrov
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-Nico Rosberg
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14Felipe Massa
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4Adrian Sutil
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2Jenson Button
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1Narain Karthikeyan
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4Paul di Resta
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-Jarno Trulli
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8Heikki Kovalainen
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1Timo Glock
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3Jérôme d'Ambrosio
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16Nick Heidfeld
4 stops
-
6Pastor Maldonado
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Fernando Alonso
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3Mark Webber
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1Lewis Hamilton
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3Jaime Alguersuari
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2Rubens Barrichello
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 3 stops strategy gained 2.43 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1.29 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option, even if Sebastian Vettel managed to win the race making 4 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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, Felipe Massa, and Vitantonio Liuzzi, both experienced issues with the gearbox, and Heikki Kovalainen, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 48.
Gearbox
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Felipe MassaLap 58
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Vitantonio LiuzziLap 28
Accident
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Heikki KovalainenLap 48
Qualifying
Mark Webber managed to get the pole position by 0.2 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:20.981. Sebastian Vettel was right behind him, helping Red Bull 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 14 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 7 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.