The European Grand Prix 2016 was the 8th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on June 19th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 33 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 4-8: 11 stops
- Laps 19-22: 6 stops
- Laps 24-29: 9 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 19.445 seconds during his pit stop on lap 7, while the slowest one was was Rio Haryanto's, who stopped the clock at 33.405 seconds, 13.960 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
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 2 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
2Rio Haryanto
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16Daniil Kvyat
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8Kevin Magnussen
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-Kimi Räikkönen
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5Lewis Hamilton
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4Sergio Pérez
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2Valtteri Bottas
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1Sebastian Vettel
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3Nico Hülkenberg
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-Nico Rosberg
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3Pascal Wehrlein
2 stops
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3Carlos Sainz
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1Max Verstappen
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6Fernando Alonso
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5Daniel Ricciardo
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8Jenson Button
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5Felipe Massa
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3Felipe Nasr
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2Esteban Gutiérrez
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2Romain Grosjean
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6Jolyon Palmer
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3Marcus Ericsson
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.33 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.78 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Baku City 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 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Fernando Alonso, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 42, Pascal Wehrlein, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 39, and Carlos Sainz, and Daniil Kvyat, both suffered a suspension problem.
Gearbox
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Fernando AlonsoLap 42
Brakes
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Pascal WehrleinLap 39
Suspension
-
Carlos SainzLap 31
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Daniil KvyatLap 6
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.757 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:42.758. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sergio Pérez.
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 5 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.