The United States Grand Prix 2018 was the 18th round of the 2018 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, USA, on October 21st.
Kimi Räikkönen won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 24 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-11: 4 stops
- Laps 21-27: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lance Stroll's, stopping the clock at 18.610 seconds during his pit stop on lap 5, while the slowest one was was Lance Stroll's, who stopped the clock at 41.048 seconds, 22.438 seconds slower than Stroll, 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 1 stop. Only 4 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Kimi Räikkönen, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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6Charles Leclerc
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9Romain Grosjean
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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16Max Verstappen
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13Esteban Ocon
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2Valtteri Bottas
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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4Carlos Sainz
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2Sergio Pérez
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1Sebastian Vettel
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11Brendon Hartley
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8Kevin Magnussen
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6Marcus Ericsson
2 stops
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1Sergey Sirotkin
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6Stoffel Vandoorne
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7Pierre Gasly
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2Lewis Hamilton
3 stops
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1Lance Stroll
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 4.44 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop 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 of the Americas, 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 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Charles Leclerc, and Romain Grosjean, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, Daniel Ricciardo, who had a battery failure on lap 8, and Fernando Alonso, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 1.
Collision damage
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Charles LeclercLap 31
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Romain GrosjeanLap 2
Battery
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Daniel RicciardoLap 8
Collision
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Fernando AlonsoLap 1
There was also action outise of the track itself, and the stwearts decided to disqualify 2 drivers at the end of the race.
Disqualified
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Esteban OconLap 56
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Kevin MagnussenLap 56
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.061 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:32.237. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.