The Spanish Grand Prix 2014 was the 5th round of the 2014 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 11th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 48 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 14-21: 20 stops
- Laps 33-37: 10 stops
- Laps 40-43: 6 stops
- Laps 45-46: 4 stops
- Laps 52-53: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 21.599 seconds during his pit stop on lap 33, while the slowest one was was Adrian Sutil's, who stopped the clock at 28.013 seconds, 6.414 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 17.
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 2 stops. Only 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, and 6 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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1Jean-Éric Vergne
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1Kamui Kobayashi
2 stops
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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3Romain Grosjean
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7Pastor Maldonado
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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-Nico Hülkenberg
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3Jenson Button
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1Adrian Sutil
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-Lewis Hamilton
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2Sergio Pérez
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1Marcus Ericsson
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2Kevin Magnussen
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1Valtteri Bottas
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-Nico Rosberg
-
-Jules Bianchi
3 stops
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11Sebastian Vettel
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4Felipe Massa
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1Fernando Alonso
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2Max Chilton
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2Daniil Kvyat
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3Esteban Gutiérrez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.07 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.17 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 Lewis Hamilton 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 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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 34, and Jean-Éric Vergne, who suffered from problems with the exhaust on lap 24.
Brakes
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Kamui KobayashiLap 34
Exhaust
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Jean-Éric VergneLap 24
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.168 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:25.232. 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 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.