Nico Rosberg made two pit stops on his way to victory in Germany but most of the drivers behind him came into the pits three times.
After two days of sunshine and track temperatures in the high fifties, Sunday brought cloudy conditions and a cooler track which presented teams and drivers with a challenge.
Track temperatures remained high at the Hockenheimring which led to several drivers switching from two- to three-stop strategies.
Among those to be caught out by the high tyre degredation was Jenson Button. He felt his team’s attempt to cover 36 laps – more than half the 62-lap race distance – on a single set of soft tyres was too optimistic. He had to pit for tyres with six laps to go.
After the leading duo of Rosberg and bValtteri Bottas, the only other driver to pit twice and finish in the points was Nico Hulkenberg.
“It was a difficult race and different to what we expected, mainly due to the lower temperatures with the track being 20 degrees cooler than on Friday,” said the Force India driver.
“We were expecting a lot of rear degradation but after a couple of laps it became clear the fronts were the limiting tyres, and that changed the game.”
German Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 18.868 | 46 | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 18.879 | 0.011 | 45 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 18.916 | 0.048 | 31 |
| 4 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 18.928 | 0.060 | 24 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 19.032 | 0.164 | 33 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 19.050 | 0.182 | 13 |
| 7 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 19.061 | 0.193 | 34 |
| 8 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 19.099 | 0.231 | 18 |
| 9 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 19.126 | 0.258 | 38 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 19.135 | 0.267 | 29 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 19.174 | 0.306 | 12 |
| 12 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 19.221 | 0.353 | 61 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 19.308 | 0.440 | 55 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 19.358 | 0.490 | 35 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 19.427 | 0.559 | 53 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 19.514 | 0.646 | 39 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 19.564 | 0.696 | 14 |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 19.607 | 0.739 | 14 |
| 19 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 19.638 | 0.770 | 32 |
| 20 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 19.710 | 0.842 | 26 |
| 21 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 19.737 | 0.869 | 20 |
| 22 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 19.740 | 0.872 | 53 |
| 23 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 19.779 | 0.911 | 50 |
| 24 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 19.843 | 0.975 | 34 |
| 25 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 19.867 | 0.999 | 34 |
| 26 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 19.868 | 1.000 | 50 |
| 27 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 19.890 | 1.022 | 18 |
| 28 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 19.918 | 1.050 | 42 |
| 29 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 19.932 | 1.064 | 52 |
| 30 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 20.031 | 1.163 | 16 |
| 31 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 20.031 | 1.163 | 20 |
| 32 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 20.055 | 1.187 | 15 |
| 33 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 20.092 | 1.224 | 32 |
| 34 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 20.115 | 1.247 | 15 |
| 35 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 20.121 | 1.253 | 15 |
| 36 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 20.206 | 1.338 | 40 |
| 37 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 20.251 | 1.383 | 32 |
| 38 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 20.257 | 1.389 | 41 |
| 39 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 20.274 | 1.406 | 13 |
| 40 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 20.313 | 1.445 | 9 |
| 41 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 20.358 | 1.490 | 48 |
| 42 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 20.423 | 1.555 | 41 |
| 43 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 20.424 | 1.556 | 47 |
| 44 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 20.431 | 1.563 | 49 |
| 45 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 20.575 | 1.707 | 45 |
| 46 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 20.632 | 1.764 | 47 |
| 47 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 20.920 | 2.052 | 32 |
| 48 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 21.002 | 2.134 | 14 |
| 49 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 21.802 | 2.934 | 14 |
| 50 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.604 | 3.736 | 13 |
| 51 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 23.305 | 4.437 | 31 |
| 52 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 23.883 | 5.015 | 16 |
| 53 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 25.859 | 6.991 | 1 |
| 54 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 26.711 | 7.843 | 37 |
| 55 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 27.495 | 8.627 | 3 |
German Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Super soft (15) | Soft (26) | Soft (26) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (15) | Soft (25) | Soft (27) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Soft (26) | Soft (16) | Super soft (8) | Super soft (17) |
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (14) | Soft (20) | Super soft (11) | Soft (22) |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (12) | Soft (21) | Soft (22) | Super soft (12) |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (13) | Soft (22) | Super soft (11) | Soft (21) |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (14) | Soft (25) | Soft (28) | |
| Jenson Button | Super soft (13) | Soft (18) | Soft (30) | Super soft (6) |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (1) | Soft (28) | Soft (24) | Super soft (13) |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (14) | Soft (20) | Soft (18) | Super soft (14) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (20) | Super soft (14) | Soft (19) | Super soft (13) |
| Pastor Maldonado | Super soft (18) | Super soft (20) | Soft (28) | |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Super soft (13) | Soft (24) | Super soft (12) | Soft (17) |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Super soft (14) | Super soft (17) | Soft (19) | Soft (16) |
| Jules Bianchi | Super soft (20) | Soft (25) | Super soft (21) | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | Super soft (15) | Soft (17) | Soft (16) | Super soft (17) |
| Max Chilton | Super soft (16) | Soft (16) | Soft (15) | Super soft (18) |
| Marcus Ericsson | Super soft (3) | Soft (15) | Soft (23) | Super soft (24) |
| Adrian Sutil | Super soft (16) | Soft (16) | Soft (15) | Soft (0) |
| Daniil Kvyat | Super soft (9) | Soft (23) | Soft (12) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Soft (24) | Super soft (2) | ||
| Felipe Massa | Super soft |
2014 German Grand Prix
- Mercedes explain cause of Hamilton’s brake failure
- Cause of Hamilton’s brake failure ‘still unclear’
- Three-in-a-row for Bottas in Driver of the Weekend
- Hockenheim continues 2014’s run of top races
- 2014 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
Image © Red Bull/Getty
Luca
20th July 2014, 22:26
The tables are swapped; the pit stop times table is under “German Grand Prix tyre strategies” and strategies table under “German Grand Prix pit stop times”.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
21st July 2014, 0:00
If only Red Bull were as switched-on strategically as in the pit stops themselves, I am certain they would have scored more points in previous races. Perhaps not today, but certainly Vettel lost time by again being pitted too late and losing position to Alonso.
Mr win or lose
21st July 2014, 15:24
True, but he regained the position later in the race by pitting earlier than Alonso.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
21st July 2014, 0:03
Something I have noticed an awful lot this season also is (relatively speaking) slow Mercedes pit stops. Are they just erring on the side of caution I wonder, such is their on-track advantage?
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
21st July 2014, 6:11
@vettel1, I think Toto Wolff admitted as much some time ago, saying something like “when the others get closer, we will put more efforts into our pit stops.”
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
21st July 2014, 14:50
Interesting stint lengths by the Marussias.. they must like the Super Soft tyre. Bianchi did 20 and 21 laps on them!
Mr win or lose
21st July 2014, 15:44
“Among those to be caught out by the high tyre degredation was Jenson Button. He felt his team’s attempt to cover 36 laps – more than half the 62-lap race distance – on a single set of soft tyres was too optimistic. He had to pit for tyres with six laps to go.”
It was a 67-lap race.