The British Grand Prix 2016 was the 10th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, UK, on July 10th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Nico Rosberg completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 47 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 5-7: 22 stops
- Laps 15-19: 21 stops
The fastest pit stop was Kevin Magnussen's, stopping the clock at 28.450 seconds during his pit stop on lap 40, while the slowest one was was Marcus Ericsson's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 44.980 seconds, 1 minutes, 16.530 seconds slower than Magnussen, during his pit stop on lap 10.
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 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 4 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
2Pascal Wehrlein
2 stops
-
-Kimi Räikkönen
-
8Valtteri Bottas
-
1Carlos Sainz
-
1Nico Hülkenberg
-
2Sebastian Vettel
-
7Romain Grosjean
-
2Esteban Gutiérrez
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
-
5Daniil Kvyat
-
5Jenson Button
-
-Rio Haryanto
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Nico Rosberg
-
1Max Verstappen
-
4Sergio Pérez
-
6Felipe Nasr
-
1Marcus Ericsson
3 stops
-
4Fernando Alonso
-
1Kevin Magnussen
-
1Felipe Massa
-
-Jolyon Palmer
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.86 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1.5 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 Silverstone 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 6 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Kevin Magnussen, and Jolyon Palmer, both experienced issues with the gearbox, Rio Haryanto, and Pascal Wehrlein, both lost control and spun off the track, Romain Grosjean, who had to retire on lap 17, and Marcus Ericsson, who had a power unit failure on lap 11.
Gearbox
-
Kevin MagnussenLap 49
-
Jolyon PalmerLap 37
Spun off
-
Rio HaryantoLap 24
-
Pascal WehrleinLap 6
Retired
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 17
Power Unit
-
Marcus EricssonLap 11
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.319 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:29.287. 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 Red Bull, with Max Verstappen in third position, and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Ferraris were right behind them, with Kimi Räikkönen in fith position, and Sebastian Vettel in sixth.
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 16 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 4 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.