While most drivers had to stop twice for tyres during the Canadian Grand Prix, Force India put themselves in contention using one-stop strategies for both cars.
Although both their drivers qualified outside the top ten, by lap 17 they were running third and fourth behind the Mercedes as their rivals pitted early.
The team split strategies between their drivers, starting Nico Hulkenberg on the soft tyres and Sergio Perez on the super-soft.
Perez rose to second in the closing laps but was unable to attack Nico Rosberg for the lead and was passed by the Red Bulls. He ended up crashing out on the final lap as Felipe Massa tried to overtake him for fourth place.
Hulkenberg, meanwhile, brought his car home fifth, the only driver to finish the race after a single pit stop. It might have been better had the early Safety Car period not allowed his rivals to extend their stints on super-soft tyres at the start.
“Being on a different strategy from everyone else meant I always had someone pushing close behind me,” said Hulkenberg, “It was fun, but also very challenging, especially towards the end of the race as I had quite a long stint on the super-soft tyres.”
“Stopping only once I had a bigger challenge managing the tyres compared to the two-stoppers, but I think we got the right reward for it. I think it was the fastest strategy for us today and to be the only two cars to manage a one-stopper is definitely a positive.”
Canadian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (13) | Soft (24) | Soft (33) | |
Nico Rosberg | Super soft (18) | Soft (26) | Soft (26) | |
Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (15) | Soft (21) | Soft (34) | |
Jenson Button | Super soft (14) | Soft (24) | Soft (32) | |
Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (41) | Super soft (29) | ||
Fernando Alonso | Super soft (16) | Soft (28) | Soft (26) | |
Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (14) | Soft (21) | Soft (35) | |
Jean-Eric Vergne | Super soft (15) | Soft (24) | Soft (31) | |
Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (15) | Soft (30) | Soft (25) | |
Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (17) | Soft (22) | Soft (31) | |
Sergio Perez | Super soft (34) | Soft (35) | ||
Felipe Massa | Super soft (15) | Soft (33) | Soft (21) | |
Adrian Sutil | Super soft (15) | Soft (25) | Soft (29) | |
Esteban Gutierrez | Soft (1) | Super soft (1) | Soft (30) | Soft (32) |
Romain Grosjean | Super soft (11) | Soft (35) | Soft (13) | |
Daniil Kvyat | Soft (29) | Super soft (17) | Soft (1) | |
Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (19) | Soft (26) | Soft (1) | |
Kamui Kobayashi | Super soft (23) | |||
Pastor Maldonado | Soft (21) | |||
Marcus Ericsson | Soft (7) | |||
Jules Bianchi | Soft | |||
Max Chilton | Soft |
Canadian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.274 | 37 | |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 23.340 | 0.066 | 36 |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 23.448 | 0.174 | 14 |
4 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 23.479 | 0.205 | 15 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 23.493 | 0.219 | 14 |
6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.554 | 0.280 | 45 |
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.606 | 0.332 | 13 |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 23.703 | 0.429 | 15 |
9 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 23.790 | 0.516 | 44 |
10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.856 | 0.582 | 46 |
11 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 23.882 | 0.608 | 18 |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 23.902 | 0.628 | 41 |
13 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 23.904 | 0.630 | 15 |
14 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 23.907 | 0.633 | 34 |
15 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 23.907 | 0.633 | 45 |
16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 23.925 | 0.651 | 17 |
17 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 23.932 | 0.658 | 16 |
18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 23.943 | 0.669 | 11 |
19 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.975 | 0.701 | 39 |
20 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 24.012 | 0.738 | 48 |
21 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 24.068 | 0.794 | 40 |
22 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 24.221 | 0.947 | 39 |
23 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 24.370 | 1.096 | 1 |
24 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 24.403 | 1.129 | 32 |
25 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 24.417 | 1.143 | 19 |
26 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 24.433 | 1.159 | 15 |
27 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 24.491 | 1.217 | 35 |
28 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 24.768 | 1.494 | 2 |
29 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 25.050 | 1.776 | 38 |
30 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 25.102 | 1.828 | 44 |
31 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 25.235 | 1.961 | 29 |
32 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 25.698 | 2.424 | 46 |
33 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 27.949 | 4.675 | 15 |
2014 Canadian Grand Prix
- Stewards confirm review of Perez-Massa collision
- Stewards to investigate Massa-Perez crash again
- 2014 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Canadian GP judged best race of the year so far
- First win and first Driver of the Weekend for Ricciardo
Image © Force India
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th June 2014, 1:21
Well thank goodness none of the teams were grossly handicapped with tyre problems, a big improvement from Pirelli allowing the race to flow more naturally than the last few years. I found it interesting that none of the two-stoppers went to the supersofts for the final stint, Massa particularly, I suppose track temperature was to high for them, something for Pirelli to work on for next year.
bharat (@bharat141)
9th June 2014, 6:50
I think massa had no new super soft tyres left with him for taking in the last stint. That is why he couldn’t take them. Otherwise it was definitely a worthy gamble to try and stay for another 4-5 laps and rush to finish on super sofys in the last 16-17 laps as Williams was very fast on supersofts during qualifying and practice.
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th June 2014, 9:04
What happened to the extra set for Q3 cars.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
9th June 2014, 6:58
There were only 33 pit stops this race? Anyway, I noticed that Mercedes’ pit stops are a bit rubbish lately. Lewis had two slow stops in Spain, and now Nico had another in Canada.
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th June 2014, 9:02
Less pit stops, better races.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
9th June 2014, 16:20
@adrianmorse they can take the chance of working slowly on the pits, because their cars are 30 seconds ahead anyway. Unless they start with their MGUK problems again (by the way what does MGUK mean? Is it a new Korean singer?)
Breno (@austus)
10th June 2014, 18:07
Motor generator unit.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
9th June 2014, 9:34
Why did Bottas stop so early for the second time? That was probably the worst timing possible, as it placed him right in traffic.
a_n
10th June 2014, 1:46
keith,
is there a story to be written on red bull strategy costing vettel the opportunity to win?
ric took advantage of his opportunities – so credit where credit is due – but imagine red bull had allowed a driver from another team to push past vettel from three positions back w/o any overtaking (the position shuffles where all due to pitting if i remember well.)
did red bull make a mistake (from vettel’s perspective)? or did they simply not have any good options to avoid being trapped behind the force india? did ric actually beat vettel on the track as horner suggested (since their pit times were near identical) or should red bull have anticpated that they were offering ric an open goal by allowing him a clean lap while vettel would have a slower lap due traffic/tyres?