The Spanish Grand Prix 2016 was the 5th round of the 2016 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain, on May 15th.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 4th position, followed by Kimi Räikkönen, and Sebastian Vettel completing the podium.
Lewis Hamilton started from the pole position, but didn't manage to cross the finish line, as he retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars, and had to retire on lap 0th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 47 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 8-12: 16 stops
- Laps 28-30: 5 stops
- Laps 33-41: 14 stops
The fastest pit stop was Felipe Massa's, stopping the clock at 21.384 seconds during his pit stop on lap 8, while the slowest one was was Romain Grosjean's, who stopped the clock at 34.832 seconds, 13.448 seconds slower than Massa, during his pit stop on lap 37.
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, 6 drivers tried a 3 stops, and 1 driver tried a 4 stops.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
-
9Nico Hülkenberg
2 stops
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2Sergio Pérez
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2Carlos Sainz
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3Jenson Button
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9Fernando Alonso
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4Jolyon Palmer
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5Pascal Wehrlein
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3Max Verstappen
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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2Valtteri Bottas
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5Felipe Nasr
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5Esteban Gutiérrez
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5Rio Haryanto
3 stops
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10Felipe Massa
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3Daniil Kvyat
-
7Marcus Ericsson
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1Kevin Magnussen
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3Sebastian Vettel
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4Romain Grosjean
4 stops
-
1Daniel Ricciardo
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3.55 positions on average, the ones on a 3 stops strategy gained 4.8 positions on average, while those on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 1 positions.
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 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 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, Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso, and Nico Hülkenberg, all of whom suffered an engine malfunction, and Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg, both retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars.
Engine
-
Romain GrosjeanLap 56
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Fernando AlonsoLap 45
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Nico HülkenbergLap 20
Collision
-
Lewis HamiltonLap 0
-
Nico RosbergLap 0
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.28 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:22.000. Nico Rosberg 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 Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo in third position, and Max Verstappen in fourth.
But the team pairings didn't stop there, as the two Ferraris were right behind them, with Kimi Räikkönen in fith position, and Sebastian Vettel 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 all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.