The Spanish Grand Prix 2023 was the 7th round of the 2023 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, during the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of June.
Max Verstappen won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 12th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 43 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-10: 5 stops
- Laps 13-17: 7 stops
- Laps 24-27: 6 stops
- Laps 34-39: 10 stops
- Laps 41-45: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sergio Pérez's, stopping the clock at 21.537 seconds during his pit stop on lap 50, while the slowest one was was Lando Norris's, who stopped the clock at 37.736 seconds, 16.199 seconds slower than Pérez, 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
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only Lando Norris, Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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3Valtteri Bottas
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4Guanyu Zhou
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-Nyck de Vries
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3Yuki Tsunoda
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2Esteban Ocon
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1Lance Stroll
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3Carlos Sainz
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8Charles Leclerc
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2Alexander Albon
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4Oscar Piastri
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-Logan Sargeant
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1Fernando Alonso
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-Pierre Gasly
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2Lewis Hamilton
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9George Russell
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-Max Verstappen
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7Sergio Pérez
3 stops
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14Lando Norris
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8Nico Hülkenberg
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1Kevin Magnussen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.35 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 7.67 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
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
This was a clean race. There might have been some minor incidents, but in the end all drivers managed to cross the finish line, and none were disqualified after the race ended..
Qualifying
Max Verstappen managed to get the pole position by 0.462 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:12.272. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Carlos Sainz.
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 11 out of the 15 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 6 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.