As expected there was little variety among the teams’ tactic for the Russian Grand Prix.
A one-stop strategy starting one super-softs and switching to softs was the preferred approach for all the drivers who finished inside the top ten. The only ones to deviate from this were Felipe Massa, who had the benefit of a free pit stop at the end of the race, and Sergio Perez, who picked up a puncture at the start.
Massa’s first visit to the pits was the quickest of the race as Williams again demonstrated their greatly improved pit stop performance.
The first-lap carnage forced Perez, Esteban Gutierrez and both Red Bull drivers into the pits for repairs and fresh rubber. Red Bull decided to emulate Nico Rosberg’s tactics of 2014 in trying to run to the end of the race on Pirelli’s medium tyres – a surprising decision given they’d brought ten sets of super-softs for the weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo abandoned his set of mediums, switching to a two-stop strategy in order to take a set of softs at the end of the race. His pace improved significantly – within two laps he was over two seconds quicker – but it wasn’t enough for him to carry his damaged car into the points.
2016 Russian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Super soft (21) | Soft (32) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (17) | Soft (36) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (20) | Soft (33) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (16) | Soft (37) | |
| Felipe Massa | Super soft (18) | Soft (28) | Super soft (7) |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (21) | Soft (31) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (16) | Soft (36) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (17) | Soft (35) | |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (1) | Soft (26) | Soft (25) |
| Jenson Button | Super soft (20) | Soft (32) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Super soft (11) | Soft (41) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (1) | Medium (28) | Soft (23) |
| Jolyon Palmer | Super soft (14) | Soft (38) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (1) | Super soft (27) | Super soft (24) |
| Daniil Kvyat | Super soft (1) | Medium (51) | |
| Felipe Nasr | Super soft (12) | Soft (40) | |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Soft (1) | Medium (8) | Medium (43) |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Super soft (13) | Soft (26) | Super soft (12) |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (22) | Soft (11) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (1) | ||
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (1) | ||
| Rio Haryanto | Super soft (1) |
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2016 Russian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 29.551 | 18 | |
| 2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 29.709 | 0.158 | 21 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 29.751 | 0.200 | 21 |
| 4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 29.841 | 0.290 | 16 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 30.001 | 0.450 | 17 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 30.065 | 0.514 | 46 |
| 7 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 30.259 | 0.708 | 12 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 30.400 | 0.849 | 27 |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 30.433 | 0.882 | 28 |
| 10 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 30.498 | 0.947 | 20 |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 30.529 | 0.978 | 1 |
| 12 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 30.553 | 1.002 | 22 |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 30.580 | 1.029 | 20 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 30.585 | 1.034 | 16 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 30.805 | 1.254 | 11 |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 30.805 | 1.254 | 14 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 31.205 | 1.654 | 29 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 31.420 | 1.869 | 17 |
| 19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 31.433 | 1.882 | 13 |
| 20 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 32.800 | 3.249 | 1 |
| 21 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 38.906 | 9.355 | 8 |
| 22 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 40.169 | 10.618 | 1 |
| 23 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 41.282 | 11.731 | 1 |
| 24 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 47.763 | 18.212 | 1 |
| 25 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 57.151 | 27.600 | 39 |
NB. Kvyat’s lap eight pit stop was to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty. Esteban Gutierrez also pitted on lap nine to serve a drive-through penalty (not listed).
2016 Russian Grand Prix
- Another weak race shows Sochi is the new Valencia
- Magnussen beats grand slam Rosberg for Driver of the Weekend
- 2016 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 Russian Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Russian Grand Prix
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
1st May 2016, 20:00
Except for Massa, every driver that was on a different strategy than Rosberg was involved in the first lap crashes. The most boring race strategy wise. I cannot believe how they did not bring the ultra soft here.
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd May 2016, 7:40
A matter of calender timing apparently @xtwl, as the ultrasoft tyre was new, and thus only tested in March, when the choices for this non-European race had to already have been made, Pirelli didn’t want to force teams to choose how many of an untested tyre to take. Seems sensible, if a missed opportunity.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
2nd May 2016, 8:06
@bosyber Thank you, now that you mention it I remember reading it.