Lap times for the 2014 F1 Belgian Grand Prix

After a rainy qualification, today we could enjoy a sunny Sunday race. But that would no mean to be a parade for Mercedes as the two drivers tangled on the second lap of the race. This damaged Rosberg’s front wing while leaving Hamilton with a puncture that ruined his race.

This led to a great opportunity for Ricciardo to claim his third win of the year. Rosberg and Bottas completed the podium.

Further back, Alonso saw his race compromised by a 5-second penalty because mechanics were still working on his Ferrari when the grid formation lap began. Additional performance issues in Alonso’s car got Raikkonen to finish ahead of his team mate for the first time this season.

Magnussen was given a 20-second penalty after the race for not giving enough space for car 14 and forcing Alonso out of the track. He dropped from sixth to twelfth, taking no points this race. But it was late for Alonso, as he then struggled to stand against Vettel and Button.

Andre Lotterer’s F1 debut ended when his Caterham stopped by the side of the track on his first lap. The same fate befell Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado.

Contents

Average pace

This plot shows the difference to the average pace of the race winner. That is, the difference to the average lap time, including pit stops.

The steeper the curve, the faster the lap; and as the curves are generated from cumulative sums of lap times, a negative slope implies a lap time which is quicker that the average.

Position

This one is straightforward; it shows the position of the driver each lap.

Lap time statistics

This is a box-and-whiskers plot. It depicts each driver’s laps through their quartiles. The whiskers represent the lowest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the lower quartile, and the highest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the upper quartile. Suspected outliers are more than 1.5 IQR but less than 3 IQR above Q3 or below Q1 and are represented by an open circle. Anything 3 IQR above Q3 or below Q1 is represented by a filled circle.

Driver championship points

This plot lets us see a drivers progress during the season in terms of points towards the championship. Both Hamilton and Rosberg are alarmingly increasing their gap with the rest of the drivers.

Team championship points

This plot shows us the teams’s progress during the season in terms of points towards the championship. Mercedes is a large step ahead of the rest.

Finish status

Here we have a bar chart showing each drivers finish status, i.e., whether the car finished the race or what was the cause of the retirement.

Source: Ergast Developer API