The Austrian Grand Prix 2015 was the 8th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on June 21st.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Felipe Massa completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 21 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 23-26: 6 stops
- Laps 33-38: 7 stops
The fastest pit stop was Marcus Ericsson's, stopping the clock at 16.211 seconds during his pit stop on lap 12, while the slowest one was was Sebastian Vettel's, who stopped the clock at 31.882 seconds, 15.671 seconds slower than Ericsson, during his pit stop on lap 36.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only 2 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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6Romain Grosjean
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3Felipe Nasr
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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4Carlos Sainz
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1Valtteri Bottas
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1Max Verstappen
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1Nico Rosberg
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1Felipe Massa
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2Roberto Merhi
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1Lewis Hamilton
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1Sebastian Vettel
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3Pastor Maldonado
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4Sergio Pérez
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8Daniel Ricciardo
2 stops
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3Daniil Kvyat
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3Jenson Button
3 stops
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2Marcus Ericsson
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 1.08 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 1 stop strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Red Bull Ring, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Romain Grosjean, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 35, Carlos Sainz, who suffered a power loss on lap 35, Jenson Button, who had to retire on lap 8, Will Stevens, who had an oil leak on lap 1, and Kimi Räikkönen, and Fernando Alonso, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Gearbox
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Romain GrosjeanLap 35
Power loss
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Carlos SainzLap 35
Retired
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Jenson ButtonLap 8
Oil leak
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Will StevensLap 1
Collision
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Kimi RäikkönenLap 0
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Fernando AlonsoLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.2 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:08.455. Nico Rosberg was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 7 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.