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

2018 Spanish Grand Prix

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The Spanish Grand Prix showed up the performance difference between the top three and the chasing field, as only five cars finished on the lead lap.

Lewis Hamilton had a 20-second lead by the chequered flag, a luxury which meant he didn’t have to drive flat-out in the closing stages. His quickest lap was therefore almost seven-tenths slower than the fastest lap of the race, set by Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton had already done the leg work early in the race when he was often half a second faster than his pursuers.

According to Sebastian Vettel the reason he made a second pit stop was because his tyres weren’t going to last to the end of the race. He had made an early first pit stop which seemed to be motivated by a desire to stop Valtteri Bottas jumping ahead of him via the undercut. This meant Vettel was due for a long run to the end if he didn’t pit again.

In the laps before he came in Vettel did lose a little time to Hamilton but his margin over Valtteri Bottas behind was more or less constant. Given how well he made his tyres last in Bahrain, it’s surprising Ferrari surrendered the position so readily. It may well be that they expected he would stay ahead of Max Verstappen by pitting under the Virtual Safety Car, but as he narrowly lost out there, the decision to pit backfired badly.

Significantly, there were few other takers for a two-stop strategy and Vettel’s own team mate said he was planning to pit once as well. Kimi Raikkonen, of course, was yet to pit when his car failed.

For the second race in a row Williams did the quickest pit stop. Unfortunately for them they also had the slowest car.

Explore the Spanish Grand Prix in-depth with these interactive charts:

2018 Spanish 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 Spanish 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

DriverStart positionLap one position changeRace position change
Lewis Hamilton100
Valtteri Bottas2-10
Sebastian Vettel31-1
Kimi Raikkonen40
Daniel Ricciardo601
Max Verstappen502
Sergio Perez1526
Esteban Ocon133
Lance Stroll1867
Sergey Sirotkin1925
Nico Hulkenberg16
Carlos Sainz Jnr912
Pierre Gasly12
Brendon Hartley2058
Romain Grosjean10
Kevin Magnussen701
Fernando Alonso8-30
Stoffel Vandoorne11-3
Marcus Ericsson1714
Charles Leclerc1454

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2018 Spanish 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 Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

RankDriverCarFastest lapGapOn lap
1Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’18.44161
2Sebastian VettelFerrari1’19.1280.68761
3Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’19.1330.69264
4Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’19.4220.98162
5Valtteri BottasMercedes1’19.4781.03756
6Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’20.2461.80564
7Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’20.7272.28664
8Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’21.1282.68743
9Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’21.3242.88361
10Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’21.4392.99863
11Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’21.5313.09023
12Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’22.0953.65460
13Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’22.1173.67636
14Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’22.1223.68151
15Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’22.4874.04650
16Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’22.5944.15338
17Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’22.6804.23957
18Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari
19Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda
20Nico HulkenbergRenault

2018 Spanish Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonSoft (25)Medium (41)
Valtteri BottasSoft (19)Medium (47)
Max VerstappenSoft (34)Medium (32)
Sebastian VettelSoft (17)Medium (24)Medium (25)
Daniel RicciardoSoft (33)Medium (33)
Kevin MagnussenSoft (32)Medium (33)
Carlos Sainz JnrSoft (25)Medium (40)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (21)Medium (44)
Sergio PerezSoft (26)Medium (14)Soft (24)
Charles LeclercSoft (20)Medium (44)
Lance StrollSoft (20)Medium (44)
Brendon HartleySoft (1)Medium (32)Medium (31)
Marcus EricssonMedium (35)Soft (29)
Sergey SirotkinSoft (1)Medium (23)Medium (17)Super soft (22)
Stoffel VandoorneSoft (34)Medium (11)
Esteban OconSoft (29)Medium (9)
Kimi RaikkonenSoft (25)
Nico HulkenbergSoft (0)
Pierre GaslySoft (0)
Romain GrosjeanSoft (0)

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2018 Spanish Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Lance StrollWilliams21.35120
2Daniel RicciardoRed Bull21.6180.26733
3Fernando AlonsoMcLaren21.7210.37021
4Max VerstappenRed Bull21.7400.38934
5Charles LeclercSauber21.9950.64420
6Sergey SirotkinWilliams22.0340.68324
7Sergey SirotkinWilliams22.0490.6981
8Sebastian VettelFerrari22.0540.70317
9Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.0850.73425
10Marcus EricssonSauber22.1000.74935
11Sergio PerezForce India22.2420.89140
12Carlos Sainz JnrRenault22.4091.05825
13Sergio PerezForce India22.4381.08726
14Brendon HartleyToro Rosso22.4721.12133
15Brendon HartleyToro Rosso22.6311.2801
16Kevin MagnussenHaas22.9171.56632
17Valtteri BottasMercedes23.2131.86219
18Sergey SirotkinWilliams23.8652.51441
19Sebastian VettelFerrari24.2732.92241
20Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren27.4166.06534
21Esteban OconForce India47.91026.55929

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2018 Spanish 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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7 comments on “2018 Spanish Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

  1. With the regs changing again to slow cars down, that 1’18.441 could last quite a while.

    1. @juan-fanger And the same with the pole time as well.

  2. McLaren are still in a galaxy far, far away in deep space.

    1. Thats what I thought when I saw the lap times…

    2. They are moving up the midfield; but it looks like the midfield is losing ground to the to top three. F1 universe continues to expand.

  3. From Lap 34 – 39 (just before the VSC) Vettel’s lap times were super consistent, but slowly increasing. On lap 39 Verstappen suddenly went ~0.6s faster than Vettel, with a sub 10s gap, and probably the belief that under the VSC they would come out in front of Verstappen, you can see why Ferrari pitted.

  4. The tyres played a crucial role. Look at the inconsistency in lap times of RIC and Seb. It seems the tyres work a few laps then drop and come back again. Balancing the pressure on/temp of the tyres ‘too much vs too little’ every lap seem to have been the challenge. Lewis and Max seemed to do a better job at finding the sweet spot where the tyre performs in a consistent manner

Comments are closed.