The Chinese Grand Prix 2016 was the 3rd round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, on April 17th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Daniil Kvyat completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 66 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-1: 4 stops
- Laps 3-6: 13 stops
- Laps 14-21: 20 stops
- Laps 26-28: 6 stops
- Laps 30-40: 17 stops
- Laps 43-44: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 22.124 seconds during his pit stop on lap 19, while the slowest one was was Romain Grosjean's, who stopped the clock at 58.563 seconds, 36.439 seconds slower than Massa, during his pit stop on lap 1.
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 4 drivers tried a 2 stops, 2 drivers tried a 4 stops, and 1 driver tried a 5 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
2 stops
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1Marcus Ericsson
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1Fernando Alonso
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4Felipe Massa
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-Nico Rosberg
3 stops
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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4Felipe Nasr
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2Daniel Ricciardo
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3Daniil Kvyat
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4Sergio Pérez
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2Sebastian Vettel
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1Carlos Sainz
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1Jenson Button
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5Valtteri Bottas
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1Max Verstappen
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-Kevin Magnussen
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3Pascal Wehrlein
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3Jolyon Palmer
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1Rio Haryanto
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4Esteban Gutiérrez
4 stops
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5Romain Grosjean
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2Nico Hülkenberg
5 stops
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15Lewis Hamilton
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.5 positions, the ones on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.67 positions, the ones on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 3.5 positions, while those on a 5 stops strategy gained 15 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 5 stops strategy was the best option, even if Nico Rosberg managed to win the race making 2 stops.
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
This was a clean race. There might have been some minor incidents, but in the end all drivers managed to cross the finish line, and none were disqualified after the race ended..
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.515 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:35.402. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Daniel Ricciardo.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Ferrari, with Kimi Räikkönen in third position, and Sebastian Vettel 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 11 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 8 out of the 9 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.