2014 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

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Felipe Massa lost almost a minute during a disastrous pit stop on lap ten of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Had it not been for that he would certainly not have been lapped and finished in the points. At minimum he would have finished near Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez, and most likely he would continued scrapping with his team mate and Nico Hulkenberg for sixth place.

There was little vairation between drivers in terms of the strategies they chose, the main aim being to avoid problems with graining. Some of those who made early first stops appeared to be leaning towards three-stop strategies, but most ultimately pitted twice.

Among those were Red Bull, as Christian Horner explained: “After the second stop, it was apparent Sebastian [Vettel’s] degradation was particularly worse than Daniel [Ricciardo’s], so we looked at switching him to a three-stop.” But they too stuck to two-stopper.

Red Bull performed the quickest pit stop of the race and three of the top five. But Ricciardo’s first stop was slightly slow and may have contributed to him losing track position to Nico Rosberg.

Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonSoft (17)Medium (21)Medium (16)
Nico RosbergSoft (13)Medium (24)Medium (17)
Fernando AlonsoSoft (11)Medium (22)Medium (21)
Daniel RicciardoSoft (15)Medium (22)Medium (17)
Sebastian VettelSoft (12)Medium (22)Medium (20)
Nico HulkenbergSoft (11)Medium (20)Medium (23)
Valtteri BottasSoft (12)Medium (19)Medium (23)
Kimi RaikkonenSoft (10)Medium (21)Medium (23)
Sergio PerezSoft (10)Medium (20)Medium (24)
Daniil KvyatSoft (14)Medium (17)Medium (22)
Jenson ButtonSoft (7)Medium (21)Medium (25)
Jean-Eric VergneSoft (15)Soft (17)Medium (21)
Kevin MagnussenMedium (17)Soft (14)Medium (22)
Pastor MaldonadoSoft (11)Medium (21)Medium (21)
Felipe MassaSoft (10)Medium (21)Medium (22)
Esteban GutierrezSoft (14)Medium (13)Medium (13)Soft (13)
Jules BianchiSoft (11)Medium (17)Medium (25)
Kamui KobayashiSoft (11)Medium (19)Soft (10)Soft (13)
Max ChiltonSoft (12)Medium (20)Medium (16)Soft (4)
Marcus EricssonSoft (10)Medium (17)Soft (15)Soft (10)
Romain GrosjeanSoft (9)Medium (19)
Adrian SutilSoft (5)

Chinese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull22.24634
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.4080.1627
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull22.4980.25237
4Jenson ButtonMcLaren22.5480.30228
5Sebastian VettelRed Bull22.5700.32412
6Kevin MagnussenMcLaren22.5790.33331
7Esteban GutierrezSauber22.7340.48840
8Nico HulkenbergForce India22.7640.51831
9Fernando AlonsoFerrari22.7760.53011
10Sergio PerezForce India22.9140.66810
11Fernando AlonsoFerrari22.9470.70133
12Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.9680.72217
13Esteban GutierrezSauber22.9880.74214
14Kimi RaikkonenFerrari22.9940.74810
15Pastor MaldonadoLotus23.0220.77632
16Nico RosbergMercedes23.0890.84337
17Daniel RicciardoRed Bull23.1860.94015
18Romain GrosjeanLotus23.2130.9679
19Esteban GutierrezSauber23.2521.00627
20Nico RosbergMercedes23.2771.03113
21Kimi RaikkonenFerrari23.2911.04531
22Nico HulkenbergForce India23.4381.19211
23Daniil KvyatToro Rosso23.5211.27514
24Daniil KvyatToro Rosso23.6281.38231
25Sergio PerezForce India23.6361.39030
26Valtteri BottasWilliams23.6391.39331
27Kevin MagnussenMcLaren23.6701.42417
28Marcus EricssonCaterham23.6771.43110
29Marcus EricssonCaterham23.7301.48427
30Max ChiltonMarussia23.7811.53512
31Felipe MassaWilliams23.8301.58431
32Max ChiltonMarussia23.8781.63232
33Max ChiltonMarussia23.8861.64048
34Marcus EricssonCaterham23.9691.72342
35Lewis HamiltonMercedes23.9991.75338
36Pastor MaldonadoLotus24.0101.76411
37Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso24.1191.87315
38Jules BianchiMarussia24.3202.07428
39Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso24.4172.17132
40Kamui KobayashiCaterham24.7222.47640
41Valtteri BottasWilliams24.7802.53412
42Jules BianchiMarussia24.7842.53811
43Kamui KobayashiCaterham24.8832.63711
44Kamui KobayashiCaterham25.4023.15630
45Felipe MassaWilliams78.27756.03110

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

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Image © Williams/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “2014 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Sebastian Vettel’s pit stop timing is really good.

  2. Even when not taking into account Massa’s fateful stop, Williams’ pit stops are still rather pitiful and lacklustre, and if Sauber and Force India can set the 7th and 8th fastest pit stops, I don’t see why Williams can only manage the 26th fastest pitstop, 1.3s off the best.

  3. If I was Lewis I would have done an extra couple of laps in the middle stint so I could put the softs on at the end and put a blistering lap in. I’m pretty sure the team wouldn’t allow it though!

  4. Pirelli are still failing the sport.

  5. Mr win or lose
    20th April 2014, 19:07

    Did Chilton use the soft, the medium and the hard tyres?

  6. kenneth chapman
    20th April 2014, 23:52

    was that the largest carpet of marbles ever seen?

    1. I’m pretty sure it was.

      Steve Matchett: David, there’s your clag.
      David Hobbs: It’s a clag-fest!

  7. GB (@bgp001ruled)
    21st April 2014, 4:52

    could the lengthy pit stop of williams been caused by the contact with alonso? i´m strongly under the impression that it was!

    1. No it was a tyre mix-up

Comments are closed.