The Monaco Grand Prix 2016 was the 6th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, on May 29th.
Lewis Hamilton won the race after starting in the 3rd position, followed by Daniel Ricciardo, who originally had the pole position, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 45 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 7-8: 4 stops
- Laps 11-16: 9 stops
- Laps 20-21: 5 stops
- Laps 29-32: 19 stops
- Laps 47-49: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Daniil Kvyat's, stopping the clock at 19.918 seconds during his pit stop on lap 2, while the slowest one was was Daniil Kvyat's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 32.609 seconds, 1 minutes, 12.691 seconds slower than Kvyat, during his pit stop on lap 1.
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 2 drivers tried a 1 stop, 5 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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2Lewis Hamilton
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6Pascal Wehrlein
2 stops
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4Jenson Button
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18Max Verstappen
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-Sebastian Vettel
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4Fernando Alonso
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1Nico Hülkenberg
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2Romain Grosjean
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1Esteban Gutiérrez
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5Nico Rosberg
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4Felipe Massa
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2Carlos Sainz
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4Sergio Pérez
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1Daniel Ricciardo
3 stops
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12Daniil Kvyat
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17Felipe Nasr
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1Marcus Ericsson
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4Rio Haryanto
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2Valtteri Bottas
4 stops
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3Kevin Magnussen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 4 positions on average, the ones on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.91 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy lost an average of 1 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.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit de Monaco, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 8 drivers out of the original 22 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, Marcus Ericsson, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 51, Felipe Nasr, and Kevin Magnussen, both had to retire, and Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Räikkönen, and Jolyon Palmer, all of whom had to retire due to an accident.
Collision
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Marcus EricssonLap 51
Retired
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Felipe NasrLap 48
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Kevin MagnussenLap 32
Accident
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Max VerstappenLap 34
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Daniil KvyatLap 18
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Kimi RäikkönenLap 10
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Jolyon PalmerLap 7
Qualifying
Daniel Ricciardo managed to get the pole position by 0.169 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:13.622. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Nico Rosberg.
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 7 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.