The Italian Grand Prix 2016 was the 14th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, on September 4th.
Nico Rosberg won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 39 pit stops during the race, although only 38 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 4 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 13-16: 14 stops
- Laps 23-25: 4 stops
- Laps 32-39: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Lewis Hamilton's, stopping the clock at 23.633 seconds during his pit stop on lap 25, while the slowest one was was Felipe Nasr's, who stopped the clock at 36.594 seconds, 12.961 seconds slower than Hamilton, during his pit stop on lap 5.
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 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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1Jolyon Palmer
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7Pascal Wehrlein
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3Marcus Ericsson
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1Nico Rosberg
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1Lewis Hamilton
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6Romain Grosjean
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4Esteban Ocon
2 stops
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1Valtteri Bottas
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-Max Verstappen
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3Daniil Kvyat
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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4Kevin Magnussen
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-Kimi Räikkönen
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-Sergio Pérez
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2Jenson Button
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-Sebastian Vettel
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1Daniel Ricciardo
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2Felipe Massa
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3Esteban Gutiérrez
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-Carlos Sainz
3 stops
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4Felipe Nasr
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2Fernando Alonso
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 2.6 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.33 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 2 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.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 4, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
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, Daniil Kvyat, who had a battery failure on lap 36, Pascal Wehrlein, who had an oil leak on lap 26, and Jolyon Palmer, and Felipe Nasr, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Battery
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Daniil KvyatLap 36
Oil leak
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Pascal WehrleinLap 26
Collision damage
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Jolyon PalmerLap 7
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Felipe NasrLap 6
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.478 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:21.135. Nico Rosberg was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel in third position, and Kimi Räikkönen 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
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.