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View: Pace, accumulated race time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Lap number in race order
Y-Axis: Time delta to reference
Reference: Race winner’s average lap
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The Pace Timeline is where the signal separates.
By normalizing for fuel and tire effects, the PWG manifold removes the structural distortions of the race. What remains is comparable performance — lap for lap, driver to driver.
And here, the picture sharpens immediately.
The leading group compresses, but not completely.
Normalization does its job — the noise fades, and the hierarchy begins to emerge.
Kimi sits at the front of the envelope.
Not dramatically ahead at every point, but consistently — across the stint, across conditions — defining the pace reference of the race.
The pit sequence is clearly visible in the structure.
NOR – LEC – PIA – RUS
And yet, in hindsight, irrelevant. Because the race was not decided here.
Kimi and Lewis, delayed, inherit the moment under the Safety Car triggered by Bearman. Strategy was correct. Timing was decisive.
From the restart, the pattern stabilizes.
Kimi now leads — and shifts immediately into target lap-time driving. Controlled, repeatable, measured.
But crucially, still faster than the rest.
This is not defensive pacing. This is controlled superiority.
The lion cub pounces again!
Behind him, Oscar delivers a strong, composed drive.
His curve tracks cleanly, with no distortion, no instability — consistently close, but never quite able to challenge the leading envelope.
A race executed well.
Further back, the fight between George and Charles leaves its imprint.
Their curves converge and diverge through the stint, reflecting the on-track scuffle — laps gained, laps compromised. George, in particular, shows the marks of that entanglement.
The pace is there.The outcome… less so.
Surely not a satisfying afternoon.
Lando and Lewis follow in the next layer.
Their envelopes sit just outside the decisive window — close enough to remain visible, not close enough to intervene.
One name is omited from this chart.
Gasly.
Seventh on the road, strong result for Alpine — but outside the pace envelope that defined the race.
The Pace Timeline makes one thing clear: Kudos Kimi!
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View: Pace, lap time distributions
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Percentiles and Quartiles
Y-Axis: Lap time in seconds
Filter: 5%,10% excluded for scaling
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This is where the race finally resolves into truth.
With fuel and tire effects removed, the distribution reflects the pure performance envelope of each driver — lap for lap, condition by condition. No traffic. No strategy. No excuses.
Just pace.
At the front, Kimi stands apart.
Not by a single lap, not by a spike — but across the entire distribution. From the slower percentiles through to the fastest laps, his curve consistently defines the lower boundary of the field.
This is not control anymore.
This is performance.
Outstanding.
George’s profile is more complex.
In the middle of the distribution — Q2 to Q3 — the imprint of the race is still visible. Traffic, entanglement, compromised laps. The cost of not being in clean air at the right moment.
But move into the upper quartile, and the picture changes.
The Mercedes pace is there — strong, competitive, at times approaching the front. And yet, even at his best, George never quite matches Kimi’s envelope.
Close, but not equal.
Is there a moat between them?
Too early to say.
But the question is now on the table.
Oscar delivers one of the most interesting profiles.
His Q2 performance stands out — not as raw pace, but as execution. This is racecraft translated into the pace domain: consistent, repeatable, effective.
The Roman cabbie archetype.
Always finding a way through, even if the car is not the fastest on the road.
The Charles–George interaction leaves a clear trace.
Through the mid-percentiles, their curves overlap and trade positions — a reflection of the on-track scuffle. But in the final quartile, the separation appears.
George’s Q4 pace asserts itself.
The fight was real.
The resolution… inevitable.Further back, Lando’s profile remains muted.
Present, but without a defining feature across the distribution. No distortion, no peak, no sustained challenge.
Meh.
And then Lewis.
On normalized pace, the expectation is clarity.
What we see instead is underperformance relative to the leading envelope. No sustained presence near the front, no indication of a driver able to impose himself on the race once conditions are equalized.
Boo.
The Pace Distribution removes the story and leaves only hierarchy.
And in that hierarchy:
Kimi leads.
George follows.
The rest… adapt.Because in Formula 1, the closest reference is always the one in the same car.
Your teammate is not your mate.
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View: Pace, accumulated sorted time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Percentiles and Quartiles
Y-Axis: Time delta to reference
Reference: Winner average pace
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The Pace Sorted chart removes time and orders all normalized laps by percentile, exposing the pure performance envelope of each driver without the distortions of race conditions.
This is where the structure finally becomes visible.
Unlike the Race domain, where the field appeared compressed, the Pace view reveals separation.
Subtle, but real.
Three clusters emerge.
At the front, Kimi defines the lower boundary across the full distribution. His curve sits consistently ahead — not by a single decisive gap, but by a continuous, structural advantage.
This is not a race artifact.
This is pace.
Just behind, George and Oscar form the second layer.
Close to the leader, often converging in the upper percentiles, but never quite overlapping with Kimi’s envelope. The gap is small, but persistent — visible across the entire distribution.
This is the chasing group.
Then, a third layer forms.
Charles, Lando, and Lewis sit just above — their curves tracking together, separated from the leading pair by a narrow but consistent margin. In the Race domain, this difference was masked by strategy and track position.
Here, it becomes clear.
They were not quite on the same level.
The key point is not the size of the gaps.
It is their consistency.
Across quartiles, across conditions, across the entire race — the hierarchy holds.
This is the difference between RACE and PACE.
In the race, everything looked close.
In pace, the structure is there.
You just have to remove the noise to see it.
And once you see it:
Kimi leads.
George chases.
The rest follow.Because when conditions are equalized, there is nowhere to hide.
Your teammate is not your mate.
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View: Pace, accumulated sorted time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
Sectors: Percentiles and Quartiles
Radius: Time delta to reference
Reference: Winner average pace
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The Dartboard projects the pace distributions into a circular view, allowing patterns and asymmetries to emerge across the full performance envelope.
Today, the picture is… quiet.
The shapes are compact and largely overlapping. No driver breaking away in a single sector of the distribution.
At first glance, it reveals very little.
And that, in itself, is the message.
This is a balanced pace regime.
The leading group operates within a narrow and stable envelope, with differences expressed as small, consistent offsets rather than structural deviations.
No one is winning the race through a specific phase of performance.
There is no hidden sector. No dominant quartile.
Kimi’s trace still sits slightly inside the others — a subtle but persistent indication of overall superiority. Not by shape, but by position.
Sometimes the absence of structure is the structure.
And today, the Dartboard stays silent.