The Japanese Grand Prix 2016 was the 17th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, Japan, on October 9th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 38 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 9-13: 15 stops
- Laps 23-34: 20 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 22.463 seconds during his pit stop on lap 24, while the slowest one was was Daniel Ricciardo's, who stopped the clock at 25.861 seconds, 3.398 seconds slower than Massa, during his pit stop on lap 32.
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 2 stops. Only Felipe Massa, Jolyon Palmer, Kevin Magnussen, Felipe Nasr, Valtteri Bottas and Marcus Ericsson decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
3Felipe Massa
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4Jolyon Palmer
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3Kevin Magnussen
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-Felipe Nasr
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1Valtteri Bottas
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3Marcus Ericsson
2 stops
-
1Fernando Alonso
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1Max Verstappen
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2Daniel Ricciardo
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4Romain Grosjean
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-Daniil Kvyat
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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10Esteban Gutiérrez
-
-Nico Rosberg
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2Sebastian Vettel
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2Sergio Pérez
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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1Esteban Ocon
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1Lewis Hamilton
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3Carlos Sainz
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1Pascal Wehrlein
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4Jenson Button
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 0.88 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, 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 Suzuka 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 0.013 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:30.647. Lewis Hamilton 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 Kimi Räikkönen in third position, and Sebastian Vettel in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Red Bulls were right behind them, with Max Verstappen in fith position, and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth.
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 15 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 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.