The Bahrain Grand Prix 2016 was the 2nd round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, on April 3rd.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, and Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 53 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 6-14: 17 stops
- Laps 24-31: 13 stops
- Laps 37-42: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 19.369 seconds during his pit stop on lap 9, while the slowest one was was Carlos Sainz's, who stopped the clock at 34.978 seconds, 15.609 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 20.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 3 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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6Esteban Gutiérrez
2 stops
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7Carlos Sainz
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1Felipe Massa
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5Marcus Ericsson
3 stops
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2Sergio Pérez
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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3Valtteri Bottas
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2Stoffel Vandoorne
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4Max Verstappen
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7Felipe Nasr
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4Romain Grosjean
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3Pascal Wehrlein
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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11Kevin Magnussen
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3Rio Haryanto
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1Nico Rosberg
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2Lewis Hamilton
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8Daniil Kvyat
4 stops
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7Nico Hülkenberg
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 3.07 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 7 positions.
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.
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 were some incidents during the race, with 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Carlos Sainz, and Esteban Gutiérrez, both had to retire, Jenson Button, who had a power unit failure on lap 6, Sebastian Vettel, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 0, and Jolyon Palmer, who experienced an hydraulic malfunction on lap 0.
Retired
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Carlos SainzLap 29
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Esteban GutiérrezLap 9
Power Unit
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Jenson ButtonLap 6
Engine
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Sebastian VettelLap 0
Hydraulics
-
Jolyon PalmerLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.077 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:29.493. Nico Rosberg was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel in third position, and Kimi Räikkönen in fourth.
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 13 out of the 15 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. It therefore comes as no surprise that 6 out of the 8 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.