Strategy at Spa had much in common with the first race at Silverstone this year. A Safety Car period meant most drivers made their sole pit stops early, and had to manage their tyres until the end.
That made for a less than spectacular race, as the top finishers admitted afterwards. Unlike at Silverstone, they all managed to reach the end of the race without suffering tyre problems, though Max Verstappen felt he was “very close” to suffering a puncture.Two drivers deviated from the strategy: Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez. Gasly, who started on hard tyres, ran past mid-race distance before switching to the medium tyre compound. Even with the fastest complete pit stop of the race, this left him with a lot of overtaking to do, but he successfully climbed from 16th to eighth.
He was even able to pass the two Racing Point drivers, including Perez. His attempt to do the same strategy backfired because he’s started on the soft tyres, and therefore couldn’t extend his first stint as far as Gasly.
Renault performed brilliantly on their tyres at the end of stints. Esteban Ocon was able to catch and pass Alexander Albon, who gambled unsuccessfully on medium rubber when he pitted, while Daniel Ricciardo closed rapidly on Max Verstappen, setting the fastest lap on the way.
The race brutally exposed Ferrari’s lack of pace, however. Starting 13th on a set of soft tyres, Charles Leclerc made a terrific start to claim eighth. From there, however, he was passed by car after car. He lost extra time in the pits as the team had to top up the pneumatic pressure on his engine, and finished one place lower than he started.
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2020 Belgian 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 Belgian 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 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 14 | 1 | 1 |
| Charles Leclerc | 13 | 5 | -1 |
| Max Verstappen | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Alexander Albon | 5 | -1 | -1 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 7 | ||
| Lando Norris | 10 | -1 | 3 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Esteban Ocon | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Daniil Kvyat | 11 | -1 | 0 |
| Pierre Gasly | 12 | 2 | 4 |
| Sergio Perez | 8 | -1 | -2 |
| Lance Stroll | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 16 | 0 | 4 |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | 18 | 4 | |
| Romain Grosjean | 17 | -1 | 2 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 20 | 5 | 3 |
| George Russell | 15 | -2 | |
| Nicholas Latifi | 19 | 0 | 3 |
2020 Belgian 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 Belgian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’47.483 | 44 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’47.758 | 0.275 | 28 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’47.839 | 0.356 | 29 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’47.840 | 0.357 | 26 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’47.983 | 0.500 | 27 |
| 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’48.048 | 0.565 | 32 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’48.083 | 0.600 | 37 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’48.305 | 0.822 | 27 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’48.389 | 0.906 | 20 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’48.540 | 1.057 | 44 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’48.552 | 1.069 | 39 |
| 12 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’48.736 | 1.253 | 27 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’49.136 | 1.653 | 34 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’49.822 | 2.339 | 28 |
| 15 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’49.832 | 2.349 | 28 |
| 16 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’49.958 | 2.475 | 31 |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’50.018 | 2.535 | 28 |
| 18 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’51.754 | 4.271 | 5 |
| 19 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’51.793 | 4.310 | 9 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault |
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2020 Belgian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | C3 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | C3 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Max Verstappen | C3 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | C4 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Esteban Ocon | C4 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Alexander Albon | C4 (11) | C3 (33) | |
| Lando Norris | C4 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Pierre Gasly | C2 (26) | C3 (18) | |
| Lance Stroll | C4 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Sergio Perez | C4 (18) | C2 (26) | |
| Daniil Kvyat | C3 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | C3 (10) | C2 (34) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | C3 (11) | C2 (33) | |
| Charles Leclerc | C4 (10) | C2 (14) | C3 (20) |
| Romain Grosjean | C3 (10) | C2 (34) | |
| Nicholas Latifi | C3 (10) | C2 (20) | C3 (14) |
| Kevin Magnussen | C3 (10) | C2 (25) | C4 (9) |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | C3 (9) | ||
| George Russell | C3 (9) | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr |
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2020 Belgian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 22.681 | 26 | |
| 2 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 22.738 | 0.057 | 11 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 22.960 | 0.279 | 10 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.982 | 0.301 | 11 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 23.046 | 0.365 | 11 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 23.175 | 0.494 | 18 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 23.298 | 0.617 | 11 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 23.314 | 0.633 | 11 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 23.477 | 0.796 | 30 |
| 10 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 23.532 | 0.851 | 10 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 23.586 | 0.905 | 11 |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.636 | 0.955 | 10 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 23.689 | 1.008 | 11 |
| 14 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 23.769 | 1.088 | 11 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 24.305 | 1.624 | 11 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 24.339 | 1.658 | 35 |
| 17 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 25.100 | 2.419 | 24 |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 25.548 | 2.867 | 11 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 26.156 | 3.475 | 10 |
| 20 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 30.678 | 7.997 | 10 |
2020 Belgian Grand Prix
- 2020 Belgian Grand Prix Star Performers
- Ricciardo believes Renault’s Spa set-up breakthrough will work on other tracks
- ‘He should have let me pass’: How Raikkonen saw Giovinazzi’s crash
- Sub-54 second laps will produce a “big mess” in qualifying on Bahrain Outer circuit
- McLaren expect Ferrari will “strike back” after Monza
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
31st August 2020, 0:39
The two questionable strategies of the race were Perez and Albon. Perez was on softs so couldn’t even extend his stint much beyond the safety car – he would have been better to double stack even if it cost a second or two. And Albon going to the medium tyre made very little sense since Verstappen had even said he was struggling for grip on the medium, so it looked like a bad race tyre for them and was going to struggle to get to the end due to the stint length.
Gasly was very unlucky since the safety car timing didn’t fit with his strategy of starting on the hard, but staying out was probably correct given that he would have also had to do a long stint on the medium and would’ve lost out towards the end. If not for the safety car, he could have finished even higher up, maybe fighting Ocon and Albon for 5th.
Duncan Idaho (@didaho)
31st August 2020, 8:12
Some of Albon’s finishes are surely down to Redbull giving him a suboptimal split strategy in order to garner some info for Max.
I saw that Ferrari weren’t quite ready for Leclerc at the SC but he had two of the worst four pitstops – and the other two look to be double stacks.
anon
31st August 2020, 8:56
@didaho as was noted during the race, whilst one of those long pit stops was because they were not ready, the other one was because they needed to recharge the pneumatic system on his car.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
1st September 2020, 14:20
The charts end at lap 44?
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
1st September 2020, 14:20
nevermind