Laps¶

Laps in the database is the lap-by-lap summary of a session. Where CarTelemetry gives you a sample every ~270 ms, Laps gives you exactly one record per completed lap, per driver.

How much data is that?¶

A typical Grand Prix runs 50–70 laps, so a race session yields roughly 1 000–1 400 lap records (22 drivers × lap count), minus any DNFs. A 60-minute practice or qualifying session produces around 20–35 laps per driver depending on track length and run plan, for 400–700 records total. A Sprint race is shorter — typically 20–30 laps, around 400–600 records. Over a full season (~24 weekends, 5 sessions each), the Laps collection holds in the order of 150 000 records, which is small enough to query freely without pagination — unlike CarTelemetry, where a single race can exceed 10 million samples.

A completed lap is on the order of 70–110 seconds depending on the circuit (Monaco ~73 s, Spa ~106 s, Las Vegas ~95 s). Sector times typically split the lap into three roughly equal thirds, but track layout can skew this — at some circuits one sector is meaningfully longer than the others.

Identifiers¶

Field	Type	Meaning
`session_key`	int	The session this lap belongs to.
`meeting_key`	int	The race weekend this session belongs to.
`driver_number`	int	Driver who completed this lap.
`lap_number`	int	Lap number within the session (1, 2, 3, …).
`date_start`	string	UTC timestamp when this lap started.

Timing¶

Field	Type	Unit	Meaning
`lap_duration`	float	seconds	Total time for this lap. `null` if the lap was not completed.
`duration_sector_1`	float	seconds	Sector 1 time. Sums (roughly) with sectors 2 and 3 to `lap_duration`.
`duration_sector_2`	float	seconds	Sector 2 time.
`duration_sector_3`	float	seconds	Sector 3 time.

Sample record¶

{
  "session_key": 7953,
  "meeting_key": 1141,
  "driver_number": 1,
  "lap_number": 17,
  "date_start": "2023-03-05T15:18:42.310000+00:00",
  "lap_duration": 95.122,
  "duration_sector_1": 30.451,
  "duration_sector_2": 38.207,
  "duration_sector_3": 26.464,
  "i1_speed": 312,
  "i2_speed": 268,
  "st_speed": 327,
  "is_pit_out_lap": false,
  "segments_sector_1": [2049, 2049, 2051, 2049, 2048, ...],
  "segments_sector_2": [...],
  "segments_sector_3": [...]
}