The Malaysian Grand Prix 2015 was the 2nd round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 29th.
Sebastian Vettel won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Nico Rosberg completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 50 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 4-5: 10 stops
- Laps 14-15: 4 stops
- Laps 17-18: 4 stops
- Laps 20-22: 5 stops
- Laps 24-26: 5 stops
- Laps 30-35: 9 stops
- Laps 37-44: 10 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 23.996 seconds during his pit stop on lap 17, while the slowest one was was Pastor Maldonado's, who stopped the clock at 37.394 seconds, 13.398 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 18.
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 3 stops. Only 1 driver tried a 1 stop, 3 drivers tried a 2 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Sebastian Vettel, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
-Fernando Alonso
2 stops
-
7Carlos Sainz
-
1Sebastian Vettel
-
1Sergio Pérez
3 stops
-
4Pastor Maldonado
-
7Kimi Räikkönen
-
1Lewis Hamilton
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
6Daniel Ricciardo
-
1Felipe Massa
-
4Daniil Kvyat
-
1Max Verstappen
-
3Valtteri Bottas
-
-Jenson Button
-
4Roberto Merhi
-
1Nico Hülkenberg
-
1Romain Grosjean
4 stops
-
4Felipe Nasr
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 0.09 positions, while those on a 4 stops strategy gained 4 positions on average.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 2 stops strategy as the optimal for this race.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Sepang International Circuit, 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, Pastor Maldonado, who had to retire on lap 47, Jenson Button, who had a turbo failure on lap 41, Fernando Alonso, who experienced an ERS failure on lap 21, Marcus Ericsson, who lost control and spun off the track on lap 3, and Will Stevens, who had a fuel system failure on lap 0.
Retired
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 47
Turbo
-
Jenson ButtonLap 41
ERS
-
Fernando AlonsoLap 21
Spun off
-
Marcus EricssonLap 3
Fuel system
-
Will StevensLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.074 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:49.834. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
Track evolution
The conditions of the track got worse between the two sessions of the qualifying, and only 1 driver was able to improve his Q1 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. However, the conditions of the track worsened from Q2 to Q3, and none of the drivers were able to improve their Q2 times.