2020 Sakhir Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres

7 comments on “2020 Sakhir Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres”

1. 

   sumedh
   7th December 2020, 16:54

   the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniel Ricciardo, both of which held third place at different stages, had to come in before lap 30 to swap their softs for mediums, locking them into two-stop strategies

   Didn’t realize this. So, both of them had to do their stop anyways. That they didn’t get to do so during the VSC was unfortunate (as the VSC was on for a very short time) but they would have done that stop later anyways. So Perez was going to gain these 2 places, luck or not.
   1. 

      I have an opinion
      7th December 2020, 23:45

      Neither had to stop at this particular time, or to take on the mediums. They were trying to capitalise on the VSC for a cheap stop. Compare with Stroll, who did not stop at this time. Norris was one of the few who had appreciable degradation on the softs this early in the race. They didn’t take hards as these were still an unknown quantity, with Vettel taking them a few laps later.
      The optimum strategy was likely medium / hard (Ocon, effectively Perez, and almost Mercedes). Stroll did well with soft / medium. Hard lasting all the way to Aitken’s safety car period, followed by softs, would have been interesting.
      1. 

         sumedh
         8th December 2020, 6:44

         Neither had to stop at this particular time, or to take on the mediums

         I think they did. Both of them stopped very early, lap 28 / 29for mediums. Doing 60 laps on that set would have been difficult. The article also states the same, that they were locked into a 2-stopper.

         Stroll made soft / medium work because he stopped on lap 42 (13-14 laps after Sainz and Ricciardo).
2. 

   frood19 (@frood19)
   7th December 2020, 20:19

   Interesting that the top spots were taken by those making the fewest pit stops. If you ignore perez, it looks like a really good drive from stroll (eking the softs as long as he did, holding off the field at the end on old tyres) but in reality he was comprehensively outclassed by his team mate. Perez simply frightened him off the road and then blitzed past ocon (who had a great day), while stroll never even attempted a pass.

   All in all, glad I found a stream to watch this one live and didn’t wait for the channel 4 highlights as I usually do. It makes me sad that because the race is on sky, it’s impossible for some casual non-fan channel hopping to stumble on a race like this. But that’s a rant for another day.
   1. 

      Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
      7th December 2020, 23:46

      @frood19 This seems like another race that got away from Stroll after finding himself in a great position to potentially win. In Monza he was the only driver (I think) to get a completely free pit stop at the red flag, putting him effectively in the lead at the start after Hamilton’s penalty.

      But while in that case it was a bad restart that scuppered him, in this race his pace was just lacking compared to his teammate, and he also seemed unable to make passes while Perez easily moved forward. When you consider that on lap 1 Stroll was in P6 while Perez was P18, but then that Perez had passed him on track before the safety car came out, then it doesn’t look so great for him.
3. 

   Danny
   7th December 2020, 23:04

   I do wish the the lap time chart (which says to excludes very slow laps) actually did exclude the slow laps!

   So much detail there I secured by the forest of vertical lines! *maybe* the laps with stops in them are interesting, but you can’t read them because they’re off the top. But they hide the rest of the data there.
   1. 

      Humberto Romero
      8th December 2020, 23:22

      Stroll was unable to pass anyone! He passed Gasly right after the crash on lap one and all his positions were because other got stuck behind Albon. So RP was able to overcut everyone. Then SAI an RIC made that pit stop under VSC that ended just as they were moving into the pit lane! Stroll was always on the better tire behind Ocon and could not make it. But Albon made a great job of keeping almost everyone behind!

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