The Hungarian Grand Prix 2015 was the 10th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, on July 26th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Daniil Kvyat, and Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium.
Lewis Hamilton started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 6th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 96 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 13-16: 12 stops
- Laps 19-22: 5 stops
- Laps 32-38: 10 stops
- Laps 41-46: 52 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 16.415 seconds during his pit stop on lap 56, while the slowest one was was Kimi Räikkönen's, who stopped the clock at 59.555 seconds, 43.140 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 52.
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 5 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 2 stops, 3 drivers tried a 4 stops, and 2 drivers tried a 6 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 4 stops strategy.
2 stops
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9Nico Hülkenberg
4 stops
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7Jenson Button
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5Carlos Sainz
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2Sebastian Vettel
5 stops
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4Roberto Merhi
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7Valtteri Bottas
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5Daniil Kvyat
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4Felipe Massa
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5Max Verstappen
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3Romain Grosjean
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7Felipe Nasr
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10Fernando Alonso
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6Sergio Pérez
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7Marcus Ericsson
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6Nico Rosberg
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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13Kimi Räikkönen
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4Will Stevens
6 stops
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5Lewis Hamilton
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-Pastor Maldonado
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 4 stops strategy gained 4.5 positions on average, the ones on a 5 stops strategy gained 2.42 positions on average, while those on a 6 stops strategy lost an average of 2.5 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 5 stops strategy as the optimal for this race, even if Sebastian Vettel managed to win the race making 4 stops.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Hungaroring, 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, who suffered from electrical problems on lap 60, Kimi Räikkönen, who had a power unit failure on lap 55, Sergio Pérez, who suffered a suspension problem on lap 53, and Nico Hülkenberg, who took damage to the front wing on lap 41.
Electrical
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Carlos SainzLap 60
Power Unit
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Kimi RäikkönenLap 55
Suspension
-
Sergio PérezLap 53
Front wing
-
Nico HülkenbergLap 41
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.575 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:22.020. 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 11 out of the 14 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 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.