The Singapore Grand Prix 2016 was the 15th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore, on September 18th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Daniel Ricciardo, and Lewis Hamilton completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 68 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-1: 20 stops
- Laps 13-19: 15 stops
- Laps 27-28: 4 stops
- Laps 32-38: 14 stops
- Laps 42-48: 8 stops
The fastest pit stop was Pascal Wehrlein's, stopping the clock at 24.308 seconds during his pit stop on lap 1, while the slowest one was was Esteban Ocon's, who stopped the clock at 1 minutes, 44.383 seconds, 1 minutes, 20.075 seconds slower than Wehrlein, during his pit stop on lap 19.
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 2 to 4 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 3 stops strategy.
2 stops
-
9Sergio Pérez
3 stops
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
2Fernando Alonso
-
2Daniil Kvyat
-
5Kevin Magnussen
-
2Esteban Gutiérrez
-
7Jenson Button
-
3Pascal Wehrlein
-
3Felipe Nasr
-
3Jolyon Palmer
-
17Sebastian Vettel
4 stops
-
-Daniel Ricciardo
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
1Kimi Räikkönen
-
8Carlos Sainz
-
2Max Verstappen
-
1Felipe Massa
-
3Marcus Ericsson
-
10Valtteri Bottas
-
3Esteban Ocon
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 9 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 3.67 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1.25 positions.
Despite of the average possitons gained or lost, and considering a deeper analysis of the performance of each strategy, we consider the 3 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 Marina Bay Street Circuit, 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 4 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Jenson Button, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 43, Valtteri Bottas, who suffered from an overall car overhating on lap 35, Nico Hülkenberg, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 0, and Romain Grosjean, who withdrew on lap 0.
Brakes
-
Jenson ButtonLap 43
Overheating
-
Valtteri BottasLap 35
Collision
-
Nico HülkenbergLap 0
Withdrew
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 0
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.531 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:42.584. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Daniel Ricciardo.
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 13 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.