chrisc90 wrote: ↑03 Mar 2024, 14:41
Much closer in final stint, but Max was probably on 1/2 throttle mode.
So, one should judge degradation to figure that stuff out.
MAX had worse deg in stint 2 and 3 than SAI, your graphs show that well too.
Max was 0.8s/lap faster in stint 2, between laps 17 and 32, Max avg pace was 1.35.444 and SAI was 1.36.238, from the telemetry I saw of the average lap, a LOT of time was lost by Sainz in T6-7 and T11-12-13, corners that LEC simply also gaining time to SAI, but had to deal with the brake issue. But even SAI could have probably gone faster had he wanted to use his tires more, but I suppose was never concerned with beating MAX as he was anyway out of reach.
It makes sense that the real gap is somewhere around 0.5s/lap on that second stint.
Deg-wise SAI also did great in the first stint considering how far behind he started. On the last stint SAI was just not fast being just 0.1s/lap faster than LEC from lap 36 to 57 who had brake issues and had to brake early in practically every corner with clear traction issues in T11 as a result of lacking front braking.
Max, while certainly managing, always had worse deg than SAI so I'd question the 1/2 throttle narrative, he probably has more in the tank certainly but 1/2 throttle is not it.