Ferrari’s slick pit work helps Raikkonen to fourth

2015 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

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Ferrari produced the fastest pit stop of the Japanese Grand Prix which helped Kimi Raikkonen take fourth place from Valtteri Bottas.

Raikkonen was in and out of the pits in 22.5 seconds – a turnaround so quick only Mercedes got within half a second of it. Bottas lost around a second compared to that on each of his two visits to the pits.

Two stops were the order of the day for all the drivers who didn’t hit some sort of trouble. Most ended the race on the hard tyres, though Max Verstappen eked out 23 laps on the medium rubber to hold on to his points finish.

Teams faced the mixed challenge of having little running on Friday, coping with higher than usual minimum tyre pressures, and seeing the hottest track temperatures of the weekend during the race – 42C.

Pirelli also reported an unspecified number of cuts to the tyres after Carlos Sainz Jnr left debris on the track when he hit the pit entry bollard, though none of those developed into punctures.

2015 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3Stint 4
Lewis HamiltonMedium (16)Medium (15)Hard (22)
Nico RosbergMedium (15)Hard (14)Hard (24)
Sebastian VettelMedium (13)Hard (17)Hard (23)
Kimi RaikkonenMedium (14)Hard (14)Hard (25)
Valtteri BottasMedium (11)Medium (18)Hard (24)
Nico HulkenbergMedium (10)Hard (21)Hard (22)
Romain GrosjeanMedium (11)Medium (22)Hard (20)
Pastor MaldonadoMedium (12)Medium (24)Hard (17)
Max VerstappenMedium (9)Hard (21)Medium (23)
Carlos Sainz JnrMedium (14)Hard (13)Hard (25)
Fernando AlonsoMedium (9)Medium (19)Hard (24)
Sergio PerezMedium (1)Hard (17)Hard (18)Hard (16)
Daniil KvyatMedium (8)Hard (12)Medium (14)Hard (18)
Marcus EricssonMedium (13)Medium (13)Hard (26)
Daniel RicciardoMedium (1)Hard (23)Hard (28)
Jenson ButtonHard (10)Medium (17)Medium (25)
Felipe MassaMedium (1)Hard (15)Medium (18)Medium (17)
Alexander RossiMedium (22)Hard (11)Medium (18)
Will StevensMedium (21)Hard (11)Medium (10)Medium (8)
Felipe NasrMedium (10)Hard (20)Medium (19)

2015 Japanese Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Kimi RaikkonenFerrari22.58428
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes22.7500.16616
3Sebastian VettelFerrari23.0740.49013
4Nico RosbergMercedes23.0780.49415
5Sebastian VettelFerrari23.1300.54630
6Lewis HamiltonMercedes23.1650.58131
7Daniil KvyatRed Bull23.1830.59920
8Daniel RicciardoRed Bull23.2250.64124
9Nico RosbergMercedes23.2410.65729
10Pastor MaldonadoLotus23.2490.66536
11Daniil KvyatRed Bull23.3160.7328
12Jenson ButtonMcLaren23.3430.75910
13Daniil KvyatRed Bull23.3810.79734
14Marcus EricssonSauber23.4180.83413
15Marcus EricssonSauber23.4410.85726
16Nico HulkenbergForce India23.4910.90731
17Valtteri BottasWilliams23.5420.95811
18Valtteri BottasWilliams23.5881.00429
19Fernando AlonsoMcLaren23.6401.0569
20Will StevensManor23.6471.06332
21Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso23.7011.11714
22Kimi RaikkonenFerrari23.7141.13014
23Nico HulkenbergForce India23.7501.16610
24Fernando AlonsoMcLaren23.7671.18328
25Romain GrosjeanLotus23.7931.20911
26Jenson ButtonMcLaren23.8011.21727
27Max VerstappenToro Rosso23.9771.39330
28Felipe NasrSauber24.1161.53230
29Sergio PerezForce India24.2671.68336
30Sergio PerezForce India24.3031.71918
31Romain GrosjeanLotus24.5541.97033
32Felipe MassaWilliams24.6702.08634
33Felipe NasrSauber24.7632.17910
34Pastor MaldonadoLotus24.8422.25812
35Sergio PerezForce India25.0412.4571
36Alexander RossiManor25.0882.50433
37Alexander RossiManor25.1462.56222
38Will StevensManor25.8753.29121
39Daniel RicciardoRed Bull26.0873.5031
40Felipe MassaWilliams26.7354.15116
41Max VerstappenToro Rosso27.7935.2099
42Felipe MassaWilliams34.16611.5821
43Will StevensManor35.76013.17642
44Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso39.34516.76127

2015 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Ferrari’s slick pit work helps Raikkonen to fourth”

  1. Still surprising only Hamilton went for the ‘advised’ option/option/prime strategy. Even the FOM feed broadcasted that strategy at the beginning of the race. For neither of the other top 6 cars it ever seemed a possibility to go for a second option stint. Might have helped Vettel to get over Rosberg. Possibly the Mercedes car flattered the option tyre in Hamiltons second stint making my point pointless.

    1. Wasn’t Bottas on the same strategy as Hamilton?!

      The hards seemed to work really well from the 2nd stint on. Bottas was struggling to get into the 1:39s on new Mediums, while Seb, Nico & Kimi were lapping in high 1:38s to low 1:39s on the Hards.
      Lewis on the other hand managed to get more performance out of the Mediums. In the beginning he was over a second/lap faster than Seb & Nico, but then the gap between both compounds got smaller and smaller almost every lap.

      In the final stint, when everybody was on the Hards, Bottas didn’t loose as much time as he did in stint #2 and Lewis put in that mega-lap which was 1 sec quicker than anything else.
      Which suggests to me that the Hard was the tyre to be on (at least in the 2nd half of the race).

  2. ColdFly F1 - @coldfly (@)
    27th September 2015, 19:18

    Verstappen lost 5.2sec during his first stop, and subsequently was caught up behind Alonso for many laps. I just wonder if he could have come in even closer had his team done a normal stop.
    But (there is always a but), had Verstappen not been behind Alonso we might not have seen his daring try at passing Alonso at 130R on the outside. (PS – failed attempt in this case)

  3. Really a safety car or virtual safety car should of been used to remove that debris. There is a still a bizarre inconsistency with the use of the safety car.

    I am glad though at this track (spoon aside) there is a general punishment for running off the circuit. Most of the corners have grass and gravel. And the ones that don’t have astroturf that will slow you down. Even at the chicane it was so badly laid you were running a risk going over it.

  4. One lap later Ferrari lost 2nd place……

Comments are closed.