Formula 1®
DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2018
Key Takeaways
- Sauber complete the DHL Fastest Pit Stop at Le Castellet
- Marcus Ericsson’s car serviced in 2.32 seconds
- Red Bull lead DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award
Sauber execute the DHL Fastest Pit Stop at Le Castellet
Sauber are currently in a class of their own in the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award. As in the previous races in Monaco and Canada, the Swiss privateers again completed the fastest tire change as the French Grand Prix returned to the scene.
Once again, it was Marcus Ericsson, who was turned around quickest, just like two weeks ago in Montreal. The Swedish driver was equipped with fresh tires on Lap 35 – none of the other pit stops at Circuit Paul Ricard was quicker.
However, despite a fine performance by his pit crew, it was not enough to see Ericsson finish in the points. He booked P13. Nevertheless, Sauber are clearly on the up, as evidenced by Charles Leclerc, who was tenth. The Monaco-based driver also managed on Saturday to become the first Sauber driver since 2015 to progress through to Q3.
"I made a good start and I was able to evade the incident on the first lap and to gain positions. After that, I struggled with the balance of the car and didn’t advance as well as we hoped to", Ericsson said. "In the second half of the race, the car felt much better and things were running more smoothly. The tyres were working better, and I closed the gap to the competitors ahead. We also had a very fast pit stop again."
While Toro Rosso carried out the second-quickest stop for Brendon Hartley in 2.41 seconds, the third-fastest tire change in the French GP was by Mercedes. The Silver Arrows serviced the car of race winner Lewis Hamilton in 2.44 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso, who were all involved in the chaos at the start, were the only drivers to deploy a two-stop strategy. All the others managed with just one set of wheels due to low tire degradation, so there were only 20 pit stops in all.
Top-ten pit stops in the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2018
- 01 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) - 2.32s
- 02 Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) - 2.41s
- 03 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 2.44s
- 04 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 2.46s
- 05 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 2.51s
- 06 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 2.59s
- 07 Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) - 2.60s
- 08 Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - 3.07s
- 09 Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) - 3.16s
- 10 Charles Leclerc (Sauber) - 3.19s
DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award: Red Bull in the lead
Thanks to their latest success Sauber moved up into fourth place in the overall standings of the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award and are now on 110 points. Red Bull Racing on 202 points still dominate the overall standings, followed by Ferrari (130) and Mercedes (122).
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