The Austrian Grand Prix 2016 was the 9th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on July 3rd.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 76 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-15: 14 stops
- Laps 21-24: 5 stops
- Laps 26-29: 45 stops
- Laps 49-51: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Rio Haryanto's, stopping the clock at 16.218 seconds during his pit stop on lap 28, while the slowest one was was Carlos Sainz's, who stopped the clock at 33.462 seconds, 17.244 seconds slower than Haryanto, during his pit stop also on lap 28.
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 4 stops. Only 5 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 5 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 4 stops strategy.
3 stops
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7Carlos Sainz
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6Max Verstappen
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1Kimi Räikkönen
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6Romain Grosjean
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8Felipe Nasr
4 stops
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4Fernando Alonso
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3Jenson Button
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2Valtteri Bottas
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1Sergio Pérez
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2Nico Rosberg
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3Kevin Magnussen
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7Jolyon Palmer
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20Felipe Massa
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3Marcus Ericsson
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2Pascal Wehrlein
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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-Lewis Hamilton
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-Esteban Gutiérrez
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4Rio Haryanto
5 stops
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17Nico Hülkenberg
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 3 stops strategy gained 5.6 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 1.45 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 4 stops.
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, Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg, and Felipe Massa, all of whom saw the breaks of the car give up, Fernando Alonso, who had a battery failure on lap 64, Sebastian Vettel, who experienced issues with a tyre on lap 26, and Daniil Kvyat, who had to retire on lap 2.
Brakes
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Sergio PérezLap 69
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Nico HülkenbergLap 64
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Felipe MassaLap 63
Battery
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Fernando AlonsoLap 64
Tyre
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Sebastian VettelLap 26
Retired
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Daniil KvyatLap 2
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.543 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:07.922. 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 11 out of the 14 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
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. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.