All the data from the 2011 British Grand Prix below.
Pit stops
Three-stop strategies were the order of the day for the front runners, plus a few others. Paul di Resta was the only driver to use hard tyres.
Race progress
Even when Sebastian Vettel was free to chase Fernando Alonso, he couldn’t cut the gap to the Ferrari.
Lap one position change
The Ferraris did not start as well as expected – rather, it was Vettel who took the lead from his team mate.
Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher both made strong starts, picking up four places each, while Pastor Maldonado and Nico Rosberg both lost three places.
Lap chart
Follow all the drivers’ position changes throughout the race:
All lap times
Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap with a best time of 1’34.908.
The short pit lane entrance meant that drivers lapped around a second quicker on their in-laps, as you can see on this chart.
2011 British Grand Prix
Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
BasCB (@bascb)
10th July 2011, 19:11
I found it a bit strange how Vettel just drove on from the start. Maybe the pole should have been on the inside line for Abbey in the wet. Or Webber had a KERS glitch again, but he would have mentioned that, I guess.
With the short pitlane, we suddenly had stop/go penalties again, but that was fine. Alonso did really well and might have won even if not for Vettel giving away the lead at the problematic pit stop.
TrueGrit
10th July 2011, 23:55
Exactly. How can both Vettel and Webber qualify with similar times yet within 4 or 5 laps Vettel is out to an 8+ second lead???
raymondu999
11th July 2011, 4:59
Both were done in very different conditions. One was dry, on fumes and using brand new options. The other was done in semi-wet, on 160kg of fuel and using intermediates. Webber probably didn’t like the balance of those too much
Fixy (@)
10th July 2011, 19:12
The category should not be “F1 Pictures” ;)
RIISE (@riise)
10th July 2011, 19:13
Once again Felipe pretty much every lap is slower than Alonso. He really needs to start finding some pace especially if the Ferrari has race winning pace till the end of the season. 2nd in the WCC will be close and Luca will not be pleased if they miss out simply because he couldn’t get above 5th enough.
I’ve said this so many times now but when will the WDC challenging Felipe return? He’s always done quite well at the Nurburgring (all be it never won there) so let’s hope in a podium potential car he can pull out a good result.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
10th July 2011, 19:25
I don’t want to be unkind but in those days there were only really two teams fighting for most of the wins and they were a class apart. Many a race was decided by the circuit suiting the car a little bit more. Add to that He only really had Hamilton to contend with and there you have a cynical interpretation of why Massa is no longer a challenger.
Steph (@)
10th July 2011, 19:45
Well Massa was good in 09 in my opinion I just think Alonso is that much better. Another thing that hurts Massa, rather than just his pace, is that often he has to wait for Alonso who’ll be ahead to pit but Fernando can make his tyres work for longer. It ends up with Massa running around on old tyres and just waiting around. Perhaps if they abandoned that strategy he might come a bit more into play like at China.
RIISE (@riise)
10th July 2011, 19:47
That may be but he kept Kimi honest for 2 full seasons. Admittedly often Felipe would completely go off the rails but the raw pace he had has completely gone. This is more than just simply more challengers for him.
infy (@infy)
10th July 2011, 19:34
He’s washed out. Alonso needs a better no.2.
mwh farrer
10th July 2011, 19:55
Maybe Massa hasn’t fully recovered, psychologically, from his accident?
I agree though, for Alonso / Ferrari to stand a chance of either championship, both of their cars / drivers need to perform and be in a position to start taking points away from Red Bull.
Fixy (@)
10th July 2011, 20:05
Massa showed in the last laps he could match Alonso’s pace, but he did so only for a few laps trying to reach Hamilton desperately.
I still think he was better in 2010. Considering how he seems lame I’m happy when I see him trying hard overtaking manoeuvres, like today, but he’s surely not the one he used to be. If he pushed to his full potential all the race he’d have been on the podium. Maybe not today but certainly on some other occasions. Whilst Felipe has had 0 podiums, Alonso has had 3 and a win. That’s a big gap. Let’s not forget in 2007 the two seemed more matched.
Steph (@)
10th July 2011, 21:36
Sid Watkins said it takes 2 years to heal fully from Massa’s sort of injury and the brain is very complicated but I hate to use it as an excuse. If Massa says he’s fine then that’s what I have to believe.
I think he’s miles better than he was in 2010. His qualifying sheet may not be as good but he’s looked right on the pace on some occasions which last year he rarely did and was even in the hunt for the win at China for a little while.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2011, 0:06
I think it is “Number 2” psychology draining his enthusiasm, he knows he can’t win but must gain points, so can’t take risks in passing as long as he is in the points. Mark Webber goes very conservative when in the top end of the points also, but Marks temperament is probably a little more robust than Felipes.
Simon
10th July 2011, 19:18
Appalling decision from FOM. Why did they broadcast such key strategic information being radioed at McLaren?
That just destroyed anything they were trying to do with Button v Webber. The added pressure on the pit crew ultimately led to Button’s retiring out of the race.
dennis (@dennis)
10th July 2011, 19:28
The added pressure on the pit crew wasn’t the reason why the wheel gun didn’t work.
infy (@infy)
10th July 2011, 19:37
The FIA should release all of it. They seem to always release any private dirt that Alonso says, so I dont see this as any different.
They are painting a picture to create a show.
Simon
10th July 2011, 20:10
dennis – maybe not, but the pressure didn’t help and the need to get it as fast as possible to counter their strategy might have contributed to the lollipop man not seeing the wheel wasn’t ready.
infy – a) the difference is Alonso telling the pit wall to shut up because he isn’t happy and wants to concentrate on racing isn’t strategic info and b) sure, if it’s all being broadcast, that’s fine, but this is selective and disadvantaging
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th July 2011, 21:05
The Alonso asking to shut up was similar in impact to Hamilton asking his team to give him more info; it doesn’t tell us how what he is doing, but it does show us some of the person racing in that car.
But I don’t want to have less info, so I don’t want to have strategic info hidden. I do think that if everything is open, as in principle it is, teams should just take that into account and act accordingly.
paulinux
10th July 2011, 22:40
Everything is released, just not broadcasted!. And anyway, since all transsmisions are open (not coded) all the teams have people listening to the other teams radios, so no need to blame FOM for this one.
dennis (@dennis)
10th July 2011, 19:21
Christian Horner revealed Vettel yet again had KERS problems, but didn’t mention when they started. So don’t overreact on Vettel not being able to close to gap to Alonso. We will never know if he could have started a chase, even though it probably would have been pointless after being stuck behind Hamilton.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2011, 0:12
Refer to the above discussion, we didn’t hear any discussion of KERS problems between Seb and pits like we have between the RB pits and their drivers in other races this year, I doubt they would have failed to broadcast it if it had been there.
John H
10th July 2011, 19:29
Great race, this in spite of DRS ruining at least two potential quality scraps between cars.
Is there anything I can do as a small voice to get rid of this anti-racing artificial system?
Sorry, just having to post to relieve some DRS anger again.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2011, 0:14
Perhaps it might be worth a discussion on the Forum.
Commendatore (@commendatore)
10th July 2011, 20:54
Why on earth wasn’t Hamilton penalised for his collision with Massa at the end? So much for the equallity and consistency of the stewards.
Massa was clearly in front of L.H. and he also had the racing line, yet L.H. stuck his nose where he shouldn’t have. Still L.H. left Silverstone unpunished. MSC had a similar incident with Kobayashi and he was punished immediately with a harsh penalty, so why again the double standards?
Anyhow, a great 10/10 race. Thouroughly enjoyed Alonso’s and Ferrari’s kicking everybody’s ass on the track today. :)
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th July 2011, 21:10
They were still busy fighting in that corner, Massa wasn’t really ahead yet, and even Domenicali didn’t want to pursue it. Cool down please.
Apart from that, neither of them crashed and I dislike after the race penalties very much, so for me, in case of doubt, don’t give a penalty, unless it is really a very big infraction.
I loved Massa battling hard for that spot, and Hamilton; the Monaco fight gives it even more drama; this time they waited until the last corner, and both went aggressive, it was a good spectacle to see from both of them, exactly because they seemed to try to keep each other alive and finished very close together.
John H
10th July 2011, 21:13
Hamilton always gets let off by the stewards, it’s so frustrating ;)
I think you’re strictly correct, but make no mistake that Schumacher’s incident was completely different to the Hamilton Massa one because Massa made the pass stick around the outside.
It was actually the corner afterwards where Lewis outsmarted him, and he shouldn’t have been penalised for that.
Credit to both drivers. Have a listen to what Stefano said after the race if you don’t agree with me.
Franton
10th July 2011, 23:12
I think there’s a one incident free offer with Lewis’ Platinum stewards card ;)
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2011, 0:21
It looked a lot like a Mansell move.
mattr
11th July 2011, 8:40
massa and Domenicali have both said it was just a racing incident.the stewards agree.only hamilton haters think it was hamiltons fault.and it was completely different to schumachers incident.not all contact is the same.you need tolook at the bigger picture.
LiteralF1
10th July 2011, 22:21
Great work as ever on all the data Keith! I was watching from Abbey & watching Alonso extend his gap lap after lap was immense!
sato113 (@sato113)
10th July 2011, 23:21
why has the format of this article changed? the charts and graphs are all separate links now… also it looks like there’s less writing (?)…
anyway, great data as always
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th July 2011, 23:50
This was explained in the round-up a couple of weeks ago.
sato113 (@sato113)
11th July 2011, 0:09
ah ok. :D