The Bahrain Grand Prix 2015 was the 4th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, on April 19th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, and Nico Rosberg completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 43 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-15: 14 stops
- Laps 17-19: 4 stops
- Laps 24-25: 5 stops
- Laps 29-38: 16 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pastor Maldonado's, stopping the clock at 24.310 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Pastor Maldonado's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 47.394 seconds, 1 minutes, 23.084 seconds slower than Maldonado, during his pit stop on lap 41.
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 2 stops. Only Nico Hülkenberg, Felipe Nasr, Pastor Maldonado, Marcus Ericsson and Sebastian Vettel decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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3Max Verstappen
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4Felipe Massa
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10Carlos Sainz
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3Romain Grosjean
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3Fernando Alonso
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-Nico Rosberg
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1Valtteri Bottas
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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-Lewis Hamilton
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8Daniil Kvyat
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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3Sergio Pérez
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2Roberto Merhi
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2Will Stevens
3 stops
-
5Nico Hülkenberg
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-Felipe Nasr
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1Pastor Maldonado
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1Marcus Ericsson
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3Sebastian Vettel
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.75 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.6 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Bahrain International Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Max Verstappen, who suffered from electrical problems on lap 34, Carlos Sainz, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 29, and Jenson Button, who experienced an ERS failure on lap 0.
Electrical
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Max VerstappenLap 34
Engine
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Carlos SainzLap 29
ERS
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Jenson ButtonLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.411 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:32.571. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
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 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.