The top two finishers in the Belgian Grand Prix made just a single stop for tyres each, while most of their rivals made two.
Here’s all the tyre strategies from the Belgian Grand Prix:
Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
Jenson Button | Medium (20) | Hard (24) | ||
Kamui Kobayashi | Medium (1) | Hard (6) | Hard (17) | Hard (20) |
Kimi Raikkonen | Medium (11) | Hard (17) | Hard (16) | |
Sergio Perez | Medium | |||
Fernando Alonso | Medium | |||
Pastor Maldonado | Medium (1) | |||
Lewis Hamilton | Medium | |||
Romain Grosjean | Medium | |||
Paul di Resta | Medium (10) | Hard (16) | Hard (18) | |
Sebastian Vettel | Medium (21) | Hard (23) | ||
Nico Hulkenberg | Hard (13) | Medium (14) | Hard (17) | |
Mark Webber | Medium (11) | Hard (16) | Hard (17) | |
Michael Schumacher | Medium (19) | Hard (16) | Medium (9) | |
Felipe Massa | Medium (12) | Hard (15) | Hard (17) | |
Jean-Eric Vergne | Medium (15) | Hard (14) | Hard (15) | |
Daniel Ricciardo | Medium (12) | Hard (16) | Hard (16) | |
Bruno Senna | Medium (16) | Hard (23) | Hard (5) | |
Heikki Kovalainen | Medium (14) | Medium (13) | Hard (16) | |
Vitaly Petrov | Medium (12) | Medium (14) | Hard (17) | |
Timo Glock | Medium (11) | Medium (14) | Hard (18) | |
Pedro de la Rosa | Medium (1) | Hard (14) | Medium (12) | Hard (16) |
Charles Pic | Medium (18) | Hard (25) | ||
Nico Rosberg | Hard (20) | Medium (16) | Medium (8) | |
Narain Karthikeyan | Medium (14) | Medium (14) | Hard (1) |
Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times
With Lewis Hamilton retiring at the first corner the McLaren crew were only called into service once during the race.
But they got their job done superbly, producing the quickest complete pit stop for the fourth time in five races.
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 19.668 | 20 | |
2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 20.287 | 0.619 | 12 |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 20.289 | 0.621 | 28 |
4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 20.306 | 0.638 | 12 |
5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 20.383 | 0.715 | 11 |
6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 20.385 | 0.717 | 27 |
7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 20.534 | 0.866 | 36 |
8 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 20.660 | 0.992 | 15 |
9 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 20.660 | 0.992 | 25 |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 20.696 | 1.028 | 27 |
11 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 20.811 | 1.143 | 21 |
12 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 20.835 | 1.167 | 35 |
13 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 20.908 | 1.240 | 11 |
14 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.049 | 1.381 | 27 |
15 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 21.060 | 1.392 | 28 |
16 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.062 | 1.394 | 20 |
17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 21.077 | 1.409 | 29 |
18 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 21.115 | 1.447 | 26 |
19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 21.180 | 1.512 | 26 |
20 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 21.402 | 1.734 | 10 |
21 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 21.611 | 1.943 | 18 |
22 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 21.664 | 1.996 | 19 |
23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 21.669 | 2.001 | 7 |
24 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 21.690 | 2.022 | 16 |
25 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 21.842 | 2.174 | 1 |
26 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 21.931 | 2.263 | 27 |
27 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 22.030 | 2.362 | 39 |
28 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | 22.064 | 2.396 | 27 |
29 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 22.106 | 2.438 | 24 |
30 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.152 | 2.484 | 13 |
31 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 22.463 | 2.795 | 11 |
32 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 22.523 | 2.855 | 28 |
33 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 23.953 | 4.285 | 14 |
34 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | 25.027 | 5.359 | 15 |
35 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 25.972 | 6.304 | 12 |
36 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 27.248 | 7.580 | 1 |
37 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | 29.107 | 9.439 | 1 |
38 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 52.206 | 32.538 | 14 |
2012 Belgian Grand Prix
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Enigma (@enigma)
3rd September 2012, 11:14
Didn’t Hulkenberg start on the harder compound? I didn’t see it myself but I remember hearing a radio message (I think to Kimi) before the start that both Nicos were on the hards.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
3rd September 2012, 11:28
I do believe he was – I remember Martin Brundle commenting on it.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd September 2012, 11:31
@enigma Sorry, he did.
rez (@rez0)
3rd September 2012, 11:47
I remember the same thing; Rosberg and Hülkenberg were the only ones to start on the harder tyres.
Mustalainen (@mustalainen)
3rd September 2012, 12:35
Looks like Lotus have improved on their pit stops, 3rd and 5th fastest.
DioF1
3rd September 2012, 13:03
Looks like Mercedes had the worsth strategy. Why the hell they stayed so long out on their first tyre set when they know all season that the car is a tyre destroyer. ppfff!
Mr draw
3rd September 2012, 17:05
Right. They should have chosen a very aggressive strategy, as they had great overtaking potential due to their high top speeds.
Sam Sam (@samsam)
4th September 2012, 15:02
For sure Mercedes GP had the worst strategy. I was baffled in the first part of the race to see they kept Schumacher out. Especially when Railkkonen came out after his first pit stop. I knew right there and then, he has enough pace to catch MSC and pass him later on. By now, everybody and their grandmothers know that Mercedes shreds those tires, but Mercedes have yet to figure that one out.
The car was good, MSC had good pace, the sensible thing would have been to put him on two stops, and let him drive the heck out of that car. Running in 2nd place and ending on 7th, big shame and a big slap in the face of all Mercedes GP staff.
Mr draw
3rd September 2012, 17:03
What was wrong with the softer (medium) tyre-compound? Many drivers were struggling in the opening stage on medium tyres (most notably Di Resta, but most drivers choose the hard tyre over the medium tyre.) It looked like the harder tyre-compound was more durable and faster.
Kimi4WDC
4th September 2012, 7:59
Thank god Lotus went for 2 stop, tyres just didn’t hold for them this race. I was surprised how fast Rosbergs tyres gave up too.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
5th September 2012, 17:22
.6s is another impressive gap from McLaren with regards to their pit-stop. I wonder how easy it is for other teams to replicate this? Obviously not very easy as no one can touch them.