2018 Chinese Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

2018 Chinese Grand Prix

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Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest lap of the race for the second time this year on his way to victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver’s best time was two-thirds of a second quicker than any of his rivals from other teams managed.

Mercedes surprised Ferrari during the race by getting Valtteri Bottas ahead of Sebastian Vettel during their pit stops. The move was aided by Bottas having the fastest complete pit stop of the race, almost a full second faster than Vettel’s.

McLaren’s pit stops were on the slow side, which suggests more care was being taken after the unsafe release of Stoffel Vandoorne’s car in practice. Fernando Alonso had the slowest complete pit stop of the race, aside from Pierre Gasly’s, in which he served a 10-second penalty.

However Alonso ended the race having gained the most places of any driver, six. Lance Stroll did the best first lap, also gaining six places, but by the end of the race he had lost two of them.

Explore the Chinese Grand Prix in depth with the interactive charts below.

NB. Charts do not reflect post-race time penalties.

2018 Chinese Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2018 Chinese Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

Position change

Driver Start position Lap one position change Race position change
Lewis Hamilton 4 -1 0
Valtteri Bottas 3 1 1
Sebastian Vettel 1 0 -7
Kimi Raikkonen 2 -2 -1
Daniel Ricciardo 6 0 5
Max Verstappen 5 2 0
Sergio Perez 8 -6 -4
Esteban Ocon 12 -1 1
Lance Stroll 18 6 4
Sergey Sirotkin 16 1 1
Nico Hulkenberg 7 0 1
Carlos Sainz Jnr 9 1 0
Pierre Gasly 17 -2 -1
Brendon Hartley 15 -2 -5
Romain Grosjean 10 1 -7
Kevin Magnussen 11 1 1
Fernando Alonso 13 2 6
Stoffel Vandoorne 14 -2 1
Marcus Ericsson 20 0 4
Charles Leclerc 19 1 0

2018 Chinese Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2018 Chinese Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank Driver Car Fastest lap Gap On lap
1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’35.785 55
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’36.206 0.421 50
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’36.456 0.671 48
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’36.878 1.093 20
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’36.881 1.096 56
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’36.987 1.202 50
7 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Renault 1’37.234 1.449 56
8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’37.410 1.625 51
9 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’37.479 1.694 24
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’37.673 1.888 54
11 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 1’37.754 1.969 54
12 Esteban Ocon Force India-Mercedes 1’37.985 2.200 47
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Renault 1’38.137 2.352 54
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’38.152 2.367 54
15 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso-Honda 1’38.367 2.582 54
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.386 2.601 52
17 Lance Stroll Williams-Mercedes 1’38.500 2.715 54
18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams-Mercedes 1’38.624 2.839 47
19 Charles Leclerc Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.808 3.023 23
20 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso-Honda 1’39.376 3.591 50

2018 Chinese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3
Daniel Ricciardo Ultra soft (17) Medium (14) Soft (25)
Valtteri Bottas Soft (19) Medium (37)
Kimi Raikkonen Soft (27) Medium (29)
Lewis Hamilton Soft (18) Medium (38)
Max Verstappen Ultra soft (17) Medium (14) Soft (25)
Nico Hulkenberg Ultra soft (13) Medium (18) Soft (25)
Fernando Alonso Soft (29) Medium (27)
Sebastian Vettel Soft (20) Medium (36)
Carlos Sainz Jnr Ultra soft (12) Medium (19) Soft (25)
Kevin Magnussen Soft (24) Medium (32)
Esteban Ocon Soft (11) Soft (20) Ultra soft (25)
Sergio Perez Ultra soft (12) Soft (20) Soft (24)
Stoffel Vandoorne Soft (22) Medium (34)
Lance Stroll Soft (23) Medium (33)
Sergey Sirotkin Soft (28) Medium (5) Soft (23)
Marcus Ericsson Soft (29) Medium (27)
Romain Grosjean Ultra soft (16) Medium (30) Ultra soft (10)
Pierre Gasly Medium (20) Soft (11) Ultra soft (25)
Charles Leclerc Soft (21) Medium (35)
Brendon Hartley Ultra soft (10) Medium (20) Soft (21)

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2018 Chinese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 22.097 19
2 Sergio Perez Force India 22.334 0.237 32
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.464 0.367 18
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 22.596 0.499 31
5 Esteban Ocon Force India 22.637 0.540 31
6 Lance Stroll Williams 22.661 0.564 23
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 22.691 0.594 31
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 22.715 0.618 17
9 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 22.723 0.626 33
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 22.785 0.688 29
11 Sergio Perez Force India 22.856 0.759 12
12 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 22.913 0.816 27
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 22.973 0.876 24
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 22.981 0.884 16
15 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 23.009 0.912 20
16 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 23.042 0.945 17
17 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 23.117 1.020 31
18 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 23.172 1.075 10
19 Esteban Ocon Force India 23.281 1.184 11
20 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 23.297 1.200 31
21 Charles Leclerc Sauber 23.392 1.295 21
22 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 23.654 1.557 13
23 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 23.716 1.619 28
24 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 23.730 1.633 22
25 Romain Grosjean Haas 23.735 1.638 46
26 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 23.935 1.838 12
27 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 23.950 1.853 20
28 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 24.070 1.973 30
29 Fernando Alonso McLaren 24.110 2.013 29
30 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 34.650 12.553 31

2018 Chinese Grand Prix

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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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2 comments on “2018 Chinese Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    15th April 2018, 17:07

    Lap, slap times – who cares about lap times when you’ve watched the most iconic race of all times – and no I’m not talking about Daniel’s incredible but another driver undoing a team’s mistake and beating Vettel, Max, Ferrari all in 1 lap.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      15th April 2018, 19:37

      I’m kidding, of course – this page is fantastic in case people actually suspect that I’m saying it’s not. It’s just that after watching such a crazy race at the end of the race when everything looked like Vettel would get a 3rd consecutive victory and then seeing everything turn on its head with every battle we wanted to see materialize, lap times won’t tell the story anywhere the same way that the drivers on the track did.

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