Did Red Bull win the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix because they out-smarted Mercedes tactically? Or did they win it because their car was faster?
The team undoubtedly made a smart call by starting the race on the hard tyre. It wasn’t without risks – an early Safety Car period could have thrown a spanner in the world – but it paid off.However on a warmer track with softer tyres the RB16 was, for once, more than a match for the W11. That, plus the superb talents of Max Verstappen, more than tipped the balance in their favour.
“We were actually able to create an over-cut on the Mercedes on an older tyre and bag track position,” explained team principal Christian Horner. “[This] enabled us then to switch our strategy to run the medium tyre and then cover them with a hard tyre which put us effectively on a straight race to the end of the race on the same compound.
“All of that was possible because of the way that Max managed the tyre and the pace that we had in the car.”
While the performance of the RB16 was clearly strong, the corollary to that was that Mercedes were much weaker than usual. As much as two seconds per lap down on their race pace from last week.
So while Horner said Red Bull’s strategy “worked well and was a gamble worth taking”, he also admitted “we just simply had the pace today which gave us that that length of stint and pace advantage over the Mercedes.”
Lewis Hamilton’s later second stop allowed him to bag the bonus point for fastest lap. But Red Bull clearly had the quicker car.
Behind Verstappen and the Mercedes, Charles Leclerc was the first driver home who one-stopped, which was a gutsy call given the failures seen last week. Were the race run again, you have to wonder how many drivers would be tempted to try the same thing.
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2020 70th Anniversary 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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2020 70th Anniversary 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:
2020 70th Anniversary 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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2020 70th Anniversary Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’28.451 | 43 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’29.465 | 1.014 | 46 |
| 3 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’29.477 | 1.026 | 46 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’29.765 | 1.314 | 44 |
| 5 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’29.950 | 1.499 | 48 |
| 6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’30.087 | 1.636 | 52 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’30.092 | 1.641 | 52 |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’30.552 | 2.101 | 39 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’30.556 | 2.105 | 49 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’30.575 | 2.124 | 50 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’30.698 | 2.247 | 49 |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’30.738 | 2.287 | 52 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’30.785 | 2.334 | 49 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’30.793 | 2.342 | 51 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’30.877 | 2.426 | 45 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’31.168 | 2.717 | 39 |
| 17 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’31.408 | 2.957 | 50 |
| 18 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’31.756 | 3.305 | 30 |
| 19 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’31.826 | 3.375 | 37 |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’31.830 | 3.379 | 39 |
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2020 70th Anniversary Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | C2 (26) | C3 (6) | C2 (20) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | C3 (14) | C2 (27) | C2 (11) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | C3 (13) | C2 (19) | C2 (20) | |
| Charles Leclerc | C3 (18) | C2 (34) | ||
| Alexander Albon | C3 (6) | C2 (24) | C2 (22) | |
| Lance Stroll | C3 (18) | C2 (13) | C2 (21) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | C3 (15) | C2 (15) | C2 (14) | C4 (8) |
| Esteban Ocon | C3 (22) | C2 (30) | ||
| Lando Norris | C3 (12) | C2 (17) | C2 (23) | |
| Daniil Kvyat | C2 (19) | C2 (16) | C3 (17) | |
| Pierre Gasly | C3 (7) | C2 (16) | C2 (29) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | C2 (22) | C2 (11) | C3 (19) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | C2 (22) | C3 (12) | C2 (18) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | C3 (14) | C3 (12) | C2 (9) | C3 (16) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | C2 (26) | C3 (25) | ||
| Romain Grosjean | C3 (17) | C2 (21) | C2 (13) | |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | C3 (7) | C2 (26) | C3 (18) | |
| George Russell | C3 (8) | C2 (16) | C2 (15) | C3 (12) |
| Nicholas Latifi | C3 (9) | C2 (17) | C2 (20) | C3 (5) |
| Kevin Magnussen | C3 (9) | C2 (11) | C2 (23) |
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2020 70th Anniversary Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 27.693 | 33 | |
| 2 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 27.858 | 0.165 | 30 |
| 3 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 27.892 | 0.199 | 7 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 27.949 | 0.256 | 12 |
| 5 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 27.974 | 0.281 | 31 |
| 6 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 28.036 | 0.343 | 19 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 28.057 | 0.364 | 35 |
| 8 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 28.086 | 0.393 | 26 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 28.093 | 0.400 | 22 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 28.167 | 0.474 | 22 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 28.167 | 0.474 | 26 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 28.188 | 0.495 | 32 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 28.235 | 0.542 | 18 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 28.306 | 0.613 | 23 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams | 28.331 | 0.638 | 24 |
| 16 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 28.352 | 0.659 | 33 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 28.356 | 0.663 | 7 |
| 18 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 28.365 | 0.672 | 35 |
| 19 | Nico Hulkenberg | Racing Point | 28.386 | 0.693 | 30 |
| 20 | George Russell | Williams | 28.391 | 0.698 | 8 |
| 21 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 28.406 | 0.713 | 14 |
| 22 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 28.408 | 0.715 | 13 |
| 23 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 28.417 | 0.724 | 6 |
| 24 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 28.587 | 0.894 | 14 |
| 25 | George Russell | Williams | 28.692 | 0.999 | 39 |
| 26 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 28.696 | 1.003 | 9 |
| 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Racing Point | 28.736 | 1.043 | 44 |
| 28 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 28.772 | 1.079 | 34 |
| 29 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 28.874 | 1.181 | 29 |
| 30 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 28.934 | 1.241 | 9 |
| 31 | Nico Hulkenberg | Racing Point | 28.981 | 1.288 | 15 |
| 32 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 28.986 | 1.293 | 32 |
| 33 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 29.049 | 1.356 | 46 |
| 34 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 29.115 | 1.422 | 26 |
| 35 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 29.296 | 1.603 | 26 |
| 36 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 29.377 | 1.684 | 17 |
| 37 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 29.389 | 1.696 | 20 |
| 38 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 29.402 | 1.709 | 41 |
| 39 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 29.419 | 1.726 | 18 |
| 40 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 29.803 | 2.110 | 38 |
| 41 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 35.864 | 8.171 | 22 |
PB
9th August 2020, 21:33
Mercedes put Bottas within two seconds of Verstappen with the same tyre for the third final stint. They were hoping on the hard he could hunt down Verstappen and win, but instead (like the woeful second stint) Verstappen was too fast on these tyres.
Bottas dropped from 2s down to 17s down on Verstappen on the final stint. Blaming the team is unfair.
On the second stint he only dropped about 1.6s relative to Verstappen.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
10th August 2020, 14:57
The team was blamed because of the strategy for the race compared to HAM, not VER! So, I guess the blame remains.
Admo
10th August 2020, 1:02
Hey Keith, not sure if it’s just me but wanted you to know that Hulkenberg is missing from the Race Chart.
Sumedh
10th August 2020, 3:13
That and Albon’s and Gasly’s color need to be swapped to reflect new teams.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th August 2020, 10:45
Both fixed, thanks guys.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
10th August 2020, 9:03
Usually Red Bull are on it with the pits stops, but both Verstappen stops were poor by their standards. Can’t be doing that when you’re racing for the lead. Glad it didn’t cost him.
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th August 2020, 11:27
Alternatively they were taking surety before risky-pace with a rare chance at a race win @eurobrun I personally don’t know which it is.
sumedh
10th August 2020, 12:05
Look at Max’s consistency from Lap 12 to Lap 25. He was faster than his previous lapon every single lap of those (at least what’s what my naked eye tells me) and he was also able to deliver Lap 26 a whole 6 tenths faster than lap 25.
Unbelievable driving!!
Minghao Liang
10th August 2020, 15:34
Looks like Ferrari pitted Vet when he still clearly had good pace in those tyres. Why do they run the hard tyres longer than the mediums is questionable.