The Chinese Grand Prix 2015 was the 3rd round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 12th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Nico Rosberg, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 38 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-17: 17 stops
- Laps 30-36: 14 stops
- Laps 38-41: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pastor Maldonado's, stopping the clock at 17.912 seconds during his pit stop on lap 48, while the slowest one was was Roberto Merhi's, who stopped the clock at 25.938 seconds, 8.026 seconds slower than Maldonado, during his pit stop on lap 17.
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 Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Pérez decided to try something different with a 3 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
-
1Felipe Nasr
-
6Fernando Alonso
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1Romain Grosjean
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4Max Verstappen
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1Felipe Massa
-
-Sebastian Vettel
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
3Jenson Button
-
2Daniel Ricciardo
-
1Valtteri Bottas
-
-Marcus Ericsson
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
2Kimi Räikkönen
-
4Will Stevens
-
4Roberto Merhi
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1Carlos Sainz
3 stops
-
7Pastor Maldonado
-
4Sergio Pérez
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 1.2 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 4 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 2 stops 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 Shanghai 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 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Max Verstappen, who had a transmission problem on lap 52, Pastor Maldonado, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 49, Daniil Kvyat, who had a power unit failure on lap 15, and Nico Hülkenberg, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 9.
Transmission
-
Max VerstappenLap 52
Brakes
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 49
Power Unit
-
Daniil KvyatLap 15
Gearbox
-
Nico HülkenbergLap 9
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.046 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:35.782. 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 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 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.