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The Tuscan Grand Prix 2020 was the 9th round of the 2020 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Mugello, Italy, on September 13th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Alexander Albon completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 66 pit stops during the race, although only 41 which can be considered "normal". Several red flags on laps 8, 44 and 45 forced all drivers to pit on those laps.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 7-7: 14 stops
- Laps 27-32: 12 stops
- Laps 42-44: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Esteban Ocon's, stopping the clock at 17.455 seconds during his pit stop on lap 7, while the slowest one was was Sebastian Vettel's, who stopped the clock at 33.583 seconds, 16.128 seconds slower than Ocon, 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 5 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 1 driver tried a 3 stops, and 2 drivers tried a 6 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 5 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
4Esteban Ocon
3 stops
-
7Lance Stroll
5 stops
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
3Romain Grosjean
-
2Sergio Pérez
-
4Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
5Daniil Kvyat
-
3Charles Leclerc
-
5Lando Norris
-
7George Russell
-
1Alexander Albon
6 stops
-
4Kimi Räikkönen
-
4Sebastian Vettel
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 5 stops strategy gained 2.4 positions on average, while those on a 6 stops strategy gained 4 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 5 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget were the red flags on laps 8, 44 and 45, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 8 drivers out of the original 20 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, Lance Stroll, who had a puncture that could not be repaired on lap 42, Esteban Ocon, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 7, and Nicholas Latifi, Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen, and Pierre Gasly, all of whom retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Puncture
-
Lance StrollLap 42
Brakes
-
Esteban OconLap 7
Collision
-
Nicholas LatifiLap 6
-
Kevin MagnussenLap 5
-
Antonio GiovinazziLap 5
-
Carlos SainzLap 5
-
Max VerstappenLap 0
-
Pierre GaslyLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.059 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:15.144. Valtteri Bottas 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 Max Verstappen in third position, and Alexander Albon 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 14 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 4 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.