The Italian Grand Prix 2015 was the 12th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, on September 6th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Felipe Massa completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 23 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 18-20: 5 stops
- Laps 22-28: 11 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 18.818 seconds during his pit stop on lap 1, while the slowest one was was Carlos Sainz's, who stopped the clock at 30.358 seconds, 11.540 seconds slower than Verstappen, 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 1 stop. Only 3 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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13Nico Rosberg
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2Nico Hülkenberg
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2Felipe Massa
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3Marcus Ericsson
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2Valtteri Bottas
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1Sergio Pérez
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1Sebastian Vettel
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1Jenson Button
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-Lewis Hamilton
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2Will Stevens
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8Daniil Kvyat
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2Roberto Merhi
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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11Daniel Ricciardo
2 stops
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4Felipe Nasr
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6Carlos Sainz
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2Fernando Alonso
3 stops
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8Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.79 positions, the ones on a 2 stops strategy gained 5 positions on average, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 8 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 1 stop.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, 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 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, .
Collision damage
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Romain GrosjeanLap 1
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Pastor MaldonadoLap 1
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.234 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:23.397. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Kimi Räikkönen.
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 12 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 4 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.