2014 Malaysian GP tyre strategies and pit stops

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

After yesterday’s downpour there was no significant rainfall during today’s race. But the threat of rain did shape the outcome of the grand prix.

As the hard compound tyre was considerably slower than the medium teams postponed using it until their final, shortest stint. This also meant that if rain arrived during the race they might be able to avoid using it entirely.

However Fernando Alonso got his hard tyre stint out of the way early and was able to drive an attacking final stint. He could have reaped even greater dividends from this had a late-race Safety Car brought him within range of the cars ahead.

While most drivers elected for three-stop strategies in Malaysia, Nico Hulkenberg was an exception in the Force India. But that meant running a long final stint on the hard tyres.

It left him up to two seconds per lap slower than Alonso on track, and though he tried to resist the Ferrari in DRS-era Formula One it was always going to be unlikely that he could hold on to his track advantage.

It also helped Alonso’s cause that, as in Australia, Ferrari were the fastest team in the pits. But a disastrous 109-second pit stop was the beginning of Daniel Ricciardo’s downfall and he will continue to pay a price for it at the next round, where he has a ten-place grid penalty for being released unsafely from the pits.

Malaysian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4Stint 5Stint 6
Lewis HamiltonMedium (15)Medium (18)Medium (18)Hard (5)
Nico RosbergMedium (14)Medium (18)Medium (18)Hard (6)
Sebastian VettelMedium (13)Medium (18)Medium (18)Hard (7)
Fernando AlonsoMedium (11)Medium (16)Hard (15)Medium (14)
Nico HulkenbergMedium (16)Medium (18)Hard (22)
Jenson ButtonMedium (13)Medium (12)Medium (14)Hard (17)
Felipe MassaMedium (12)Medium (15)Medium (15)Hard (14)
Valtteri BottasMedium (14)Medium (15)Medium (15)Hard (12)
Kevin MagnussenMedium (9)Medium (15)Medium (15)Hard (16)
Daniil KvyatMedium (10)Medium (12)Hard (12)Medium (21)
Romain GrosjeanMedium (12)Medium (13)Medium (15)Hard (15)
Kimi RaikkonenMedium (2)Medium (16)Hard (16)Medium (21)
Kamui KobayashiMedium (15)Medium (16)Hard (24)
Marcus EricssonMedium (11)Medium (15)Medium (12)Hard (16)
Max ChiltonMedium (10)Medium (17)Medium (14)Hard (13)
Daniel RicciardoMedium (12)Medium (16)Hard (12)Medium (2)Hard (2)Hard (5)
Esteban GutierrezMedium (10)Medium (13)Hard (12)
Adrian SutilMedium (11)Hard (13)Hard (8)
Jean-Eric VergneMedium (2)Hard (15)Medium (1)
Jules BianchiMedium (1)Medium (7)
Pastor MaldonadoMedium (7)
Sergio PerezHard

Malaysian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Fernando AlonsoFerrari24.22227
2Kimi RaikkonenFerrari24.2460.02434
3Kevin MagnussenMcLaren24.4150.19339
4Kimi RaikkonenFerrari24.4170.19518
5Sebastian VettelRed Bull24.4320.21013
6Fernando AlonsoFerrari24.4660.24411
7Lewis HamiltonMercedes24.4840.26251
8Valtteri BottasWilliams24.4980.27644
9Jenson ButtonMcLaren24.5240.30225
10Felipe MassaWilliams24.5260.30442
11Felipe MassaWilliams24.5770.35527
12Lewis HamiltonMercedes24.6040.38215
13Felipe MassaWilliams24.6370.41512
14Fernando AlonsoFerrari24.6410.41942
15Nico RosbergMercedes24.6540.43250
16Daniel RicciardoRed Bull24.7090.48712
17Nico RosbergMercedes24.7230.50114
18Sebastian VettelRed Bull24.7280.50631
19Daniel RicciardoRed Bull24.7750.55328
20Jenson ButtonMcLaren24.8410.61913
21Nico HulkenbergForce India24.8870.66534
22Valtteri BottasWilliams24.9640.74229
23Valtteri BottasWilliams25.0200.79814
24Jenson ButtonMcLaren25.0280.80639
25Romain GrosjeanLotus25.0460.82412
26Daniil KvyatToro Rosso25.1090.88710
27Sebastian VettelRed Bull25.1860.96449
28Nico RosbergMercedes25.2871.06532
29Daniil KvyatToro Rosso25.2891.06734
30Lewis HamiltonMercedes25.2961.07433
31Nico HulkenbergForce India25.3361.11416
32Adrian SutilSauber25.4931.27124
33Romain GrosjeanLotus25.5961.37425
34Max ChiltonMarussia25.6391.41710
35Romain GrosjeanLotus25.7351.51340
36Adrian SutilSauber25.9981.77611
37Marcus EricssonCaterham26.0301.80838
38Esteban GutierrezSauber26.3252.10323
39Kimi RaikkonenFerrari26.3992.1772
40Kamui KobayashiCaterham26.5052.28331
41Marcus EricssonCaterham26.5152.29326
42Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso26.5982.37617
43Kamui KobayashiCaterham27.1242.90215
44Daniil KvyatToro Rosso27.4733.25122
45Max ChiltonMarussia27.8283.60641
46Max ChiltonMarussia29.2104.98827
47Esteban GutierrezSauber29.4205.19810
48Marcus EricssonCaterham30.0405.81811
49Kevin MagnussenMcLaren30.6616.43924
50Daniel RicciardoRed Bull34.48010.25844
51Daniel RicciardoRed Bull34.69710.47542
52Kevin MagnussenMcLaren37.11612.8949
53Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso45.62921.4072
54Jules BianchiMarussia52.83628.6141
55Daniel RicciardoRed Bull109.32985.10740

2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

7 comments on “2014 Malaysian GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Thanks for all the data!
    @keithcollantine, could the fuel data be added in some way in the stats?
    Or I missed it?

    1. Was just wondering the same thing. BBC article suggests Hamilton used the least of the top 10, but the Williams had loads left with 6 to go.

  2. If it’s possible, could you add the stationary time to the pit stop information. Otherwise, thank you for all the additional information and data.

  3. Would it be possible to show a chart/table giving data on which lap a driver has overtaken another driver? For example, today on lap 1 Rosberg overtook Vettel. Anyway, many thanks for all the stats/charts currently being provided by f1fanatic.

  4. He could have reaped even greater dividends from this had a late-race Safety Car brought him within range of the cars ahead.

    This happens from time to time with Alonso.

  5. Great stats Keith! From this it can clearly be seen that McLaren are not only not fast enough but they can’t make their tyres last as well. It looks as if pre-season testing flattered to deceive, and from this, the first ‘proper’ race, it would seem that thus far, the MP29 is no better than last year’s car. The Mercedes, Red Bull and even Ferrari appear to be in a different league.

  6. Ricciardo’s pit stop was an absolute joke – you have to feel for him. It’s enough to knock anyone’s game off.

Comments are closed.