Three-stop strategies were the order of the day for most drivers in Hungary. But once again Lotus used their car’s ability to look after its tyres to make one fewer stop and gain places.
Kimi Raikkonen exploited a two-stop strategy to move up from sixth in the opening stages to finish second.
During his final, 28-lap stint he was able to keep Sebastian Vettel behind despite the Red Bull driver’s tyres being 13 laps fresher.
Both McLaren drivers also used two-stop strategies. However Sam Michael later said they would have preferred to run a three-stop strategy for Jenson Button, which would have been quicker, but there were few chances to bring him into the pits and get him out again in clear air.
Another driver who made a two-stop strategy work was Nico Hulkenberg, including a 34-lap stint at the end of the race (one lap short of half the total distance), in a car which previously had severe trouble with rear tyre degradation.
For the seventh time in ten races Red Bull performed the fastest pit stop.
Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Soft (9) | Medium (22) | Medium (19) | Medium (20) |
Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (13) | Medium (29) | Medium (28) | |
Sebastian Vettel | Soft (11) | Medium (23) | Medium (21) | Medium (15) |
Mark Webber | Medium (23) | Medium (20) | Medium (16) | Soft (11) |
Fernando Alonso | Soft (12) | Medium (22) | Medium (14) | Medium (22) |
Romain Grosjean | Soft (13) | Medium (12) | Medium (22) | Medium (23) |
Jenson Button | Medium (24) | Soft (13) | Medium (33) | |
Felipe Massa | Soft (11) | Medium (20) | Medium (17) | Medium (22) |
Sergio Perez | Medium (23) | Soft (15) | Medium (31) | |
Pastor Maldonado | Soft (9) | Medium (19) | Medium (23) | Medium (18) |
Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (11) | Medium (24) | Medium (34) | |
Jean-Eric Vergne | Soft (8) | Medium (22) | Medium (20) | Medium (19) |
Daniel Ricciardo | Soft (10) | Medium (28) | Medium (31) | |
Giedo van der Garde | Soft (8) | Medium (19) | Medium (17) | Medium (24) |
Charles Pic | Soft (13) | Medium (25) | Medium (30) | |
Jules Bianchi | Medium (20) | Soft (13) | Medium (13) | Medium (21) |
Max Chilton | Medium (21) | Soft (13) | Medium (16) | Medium (17) |
Paul di Resta | Soft (9) | Medium (17) | Medium (22) | Medium (18) |
Nico Rosberg | Soft (10) | Medium (19) | Medium (19) | Medium (16) |
Valtteri Bottas | Soft (10) | Medium (23) | Medium (9) | |
Esteban Gutierrez | Medium (23) | Medium (5) | ||
Adrian Sutil | Medium (19) |
Hungarian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.343 | 11 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.454 | 0.111 | 31 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.599 | 0.256 | 12 |
4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.612 | 0.269 | 48 |
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 21.643 | 0.300 | 42 |
6 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.666 | 0.323 | 55 |
7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.753 | 0.410 | 31 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 21.753 | 0.410 | 48 |
9 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 21.762 | 0.419 | 23 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.840 | 0.497 | 9 |
11 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.854 | 0.511 | 48 |
12 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 21.863 | 0.520 | 34 |
13 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 21.880 | 0.537 | 28 |
14 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 21.996 | 0.653 | 38 |
15 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.015 | 0.672 | 10 |
16 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 22.022 | 0.679 | 59 |
17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.023 | 0.680 | 10 |
18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.054 | 0.711 | 13 |
19 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 22.103 | 0.760 | 9 |
20 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.107 | 0.764 | 24 |
21 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.136 | 0.793 | 50 |
22 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 22.159 | 0.816 | 20 |
23 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 22.161 | 0.818 | 13 |
24 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 22.221 | 0.878 | 33 |
25 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 22.249 | 0.906 | 34 |
26 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.267 | 0.924 | 25 |
27 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 22.282 | 0.939 | 30 |
28 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 22.301 | 0.958 | 34 |
29 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 22.303 | 0.960 | 11 |
30 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 22.323 | 0.980 | 21 |
31 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 22.323 | 0.980 | 23 |
32 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 22.349 | 1.006 | 43 |
33 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 22.384 | 1.041 | 44 |
34 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 22.425 | 1.082 | 23 |
35 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 22.450 | 1.107 | 38 |
36 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 22.451 | 1.108 | 47 |
37 | Charles Pic | Caterham | 22.465 | 1.122 | 13 |
38 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.496 | 1.153 | 37 |
39 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 22.606 | 1.263 | 35 |
40 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 22.612 | 1.269 | 33 |
41 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.628 | 1.285 | 29 |
42 | Sergio Perez | McLaren | 22.722 | 1.379 | 38 |
43 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 22.723 | 1.380 | 26 |
44 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 22.745 | 1.402 | 8 |
45 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 22.754 | 1.411 | 9 |
46 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 22.831 | 1.488 | 27 |
47 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 23.012 | 1.669 | 11 |
48 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 23.027 | 1.684 | 48 |
49 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 23.030 | 1.687 | 46 |
50 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 23.200 | 1.857 | 8 |
51 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 23.257 | 1.914 | 50 |
52 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 23.756 | 2.413 | 50 |
53 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 24.033 | 2.690 | 10 |
54 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 24.796 | 3.453 | 51 |
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Hamilton takes second Driver of the Weekend win
- Hungarian GP rated among top three races so far
- 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Why the Hungarian Grand Prix is a must-see race
- 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
Image © Lotus/LAT
andae23 (@andae23)
28th July 2013, 22:00
Strange to see the change of minds at Lotus: their first stints were exactly the same, but then Grosjean did a very short stint while Raikkonen just kept on going. Grosjean got stuck behind JB and Vettel in his second stint, but the decision to then bring him in earlier was one I doubted as soon as I saw him coming in. Why didn’t he just drop back from Vettel to prevent overheating and just a 2-stop like Raikkonen did?
On a different note: looking at the Caterham, Pic did a 2-stop while Van der Garde did a 3-stop, but in contrast to the front of the field (Button and Raikkonen), a 2-stop didn’t work out for Pic, even though he said he didn’t have any problems.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
29th July 2013, 4:15
When I saw him come in so early, I thought it might have been Lotus just trying to apologise to the stewards for his move on Button.
In hind sight it might have been better to just take the drive through for it because a drive through is quicker than a pitstop.
Mr win or lose
29th July 2013, 23:21
Lotus pulled in Grosjean early to cover Button, but it didn’t work out very well. Strangely, all teams decided to use the medium tyres for the majority of the race, even though the tyre-wear levels seemed rather low, while the soft tyre was almost a second a lap faster.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
28th July 2013, 22:05
Pretty good pit stops all around. No major issues at all, which is rare.
Enigma (@enigma)
29th July 2013, 20:13
Indeed, all stops within 3,5 seconds of each other – doesn’t happen all that often.
arki19
30th July 2013, 4:17
Does anyone have a theory as to why McLaren went for the soft tyres on the second stint? It would make sense to leave them for when car is lighter at the end of the race surely?
Also, why did Vettel have such difficulty getting past Button when Hamilton achieved that feat very quickly? Aero, engines, set up??
I would like to think it was engine – but then nothing seems to be decided by who’s got the best/ most powerful/ efficient engine anymore. (tyres, tyres, tyres…)
Maybe this is why F1 fails to attract more of the major car manufacturers world wide.