The Spanish Grand Prix 2015 was the 5th round of the 2015 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 10th.
Nico Rosberg won the race from the pole, followed by Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 46 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 10-19: 20 stops
- Laps 36-45: 14 stops
The fastest pit stop was Sebastian Vettel's, stopping the clock at 21.762 seconds during his pit stop on lap 14, while the slowest one was was Romain Grosjean's, who stopped the clock at 33.256 seconds, 11.494 seconds slower than Vettel, during his pit stop on lap 40.
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 1 driver tried a 1 stop, and 7 drivers tried a 3 stops.
The race winner, Nico Rosberg, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
7Fernando Alonso
2 stops
-
2Daniil Kvyat
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3Felipe Nasr
-
3Daniel Ricciardo
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5Max Verstappen
-
-Sebastian Vettel
-
4Carlos Sainz
-
-Nico Rosberg
-
3Romain Grosjean
-
-Valtteri Bottas
-
2Kimi Räikkönen
-
2Marcus Ericsson
-
5Sergio Pérez
3 stops
-
2Nico Hülkenberg
-
2Jenson Button
-
-Lewis Hamilton
-
3Felipe Massa
-
7Pastor Maldonado
-
2Will Stevens
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2Roberto Merhi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 0.58 positions, while those on a 3 stops strategy gained 1.17 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops 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 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Pastor Maldonado, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 45, and Fernando Alonso, who saw the breaks of the car give up on lap 26.
Accident
-
Pastor MaldonadoLap 45
Brakes
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Fernando AlonsoLap 26
Qualifying
Nico Rosberg managed to get the pole position by 0.267 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:24.681. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
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 12 out of the 15 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.