Red Bull’s victory in the Spanish Grand Prix came despite two other cars in the race setting faster lap times.
Daniil Kvyat headed the top lap times table for Toro Rosso, a full second quicker than the three-stopping Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
Race winner Max Verstappen set the sixth-fastest lap of the race. He did it on the 36th tour, the first of his 32-lap stint at the end of the race which won him the grand prix.
Verstappen took the lead after team mate Daniel Ricciardo and Vettel switched to three-stop strategies. But despite fresher tyres Vettel’s lap times were typically no more than half a second quicker than Verstappen’s throughout the final stint of the race. Ricciardo, who showed the potential to lap quicker, was trapped behind Vettel.
A late stint on soft tyres for Kevin Magnussen allowed him to set the fifth-quickest lap of the race. However it brought him within range of team mate Jolyon Palmer, who was running almost three seconds slower, and the pair collided on the final lap.
2016 Spanish Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2016 Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’26.948 | 53 | |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’27.974 | 1.026 | 39 |
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’28.209 | 1.261 | 46 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’28.538 | 1.590 | 38 |
5 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’28.716 | 1.768 | 57 |
6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’28.816 | 1.868 | 36 |
7 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’28.974 | 2.026 | 41 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’29.081 | 2.133 | 60 |
9 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’29.238 | 2.290 | 43 |
10 | Rio Haryanto | Manor-Mercedes | 1’29.402 | 2.454 | 52 |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’29.663 | 2.715 | 42 |
12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’29.715 | 2.767 | 42 |
13 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’29.750 | 2.802 | 41 |
14 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’29.779 | 2.831 | 35 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’29.801 | 2.853 | 37 |
16 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’29.905 | 2.957 | 38 |
17 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’30.139 | 3.191 | 34 |
18 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’30.260 | 3.312 | 39 |
19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’31.182 | 4.234 | 37 |
20 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’31.810 | 4.862 | 8 |
21 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |||
22 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
2016 Spanish Grand Prix
- Ricciardo still coming to terms with losing Spain win
- Landslide Driver of the Weekend win for Verstappen
- Verstappen win flummoxes Predictions players
- Praise for surprising Spanish GP – and new winner Verstappen
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
15th May 2016, 21:48
Verstappen should be the new standard for tyre management. Phenomenal.
Mike (@mike)
16th May 2016, 2:53
I am not seeing anything in the data above that suggests that he did better than the drivers around him. Kimi for instance looked to be faster at the end of the stints.
iAltair (@)
17th May 2016, 8:38
Exactly and in fact both Ferrari looked to have the pace advantage over the Red Bulls. Did the pit stop strategy screw them over that hard?
Baron
17th May 2016, 11:44
@mike
It’s there bright as day. Verstappen did longer stints than Ricciardo whilst keeping his tyres in better shape. Look at Ricciardo’s third stint. That’s the reason Ricciardo did a 3 stop and Verstappen a 2 stop.
Ferrari had an overal pace advantage so comparing Verstappen to Raikkonen is nonsense.
Bottomline is everyone including Pirelli, Red Bull AND Ferrari thought the mediums would last some 25 laps. Verstappen managed 32. In a car he’s been strapped into only four times before the race… That’s what’s most impressive about his drive.
Yuriy
15th May 2016, 23:40
haha, Kvyat 1 sec faster then second fastest and 1.8 sec faster then verstappen in redbull
Michiel
17th May 2016, 8:43
On fresh soft tires, with only 14 laps of petrol left and not battling for position…
Michiel
17th May 2016, 9:00
And apparently not concerned about tire wear.
jCage
16th May 2016, 0:48
Wow, looks like only one driver drove at 100% pace at any point in the race while the rest were in constant tire conservation mode.
Mike (@mike)
16th May 2016, 2:57
It looks like that because Kyvat had just pitted. Most other drivers were were half way through stints.
Drivers will always be quicker at the start of a stint, when you combine that with the fuel it makes a graph like that completely normal. It’s why Magnussen jumps to the top of the times despite having a much slower car than he leaders.
Andrija
16th May 2016, 7:22
Ferrari was thinking that it will be a fight between Ricciardo and Vettel, they could have switched Vettel easily to a 2-stopper, even at a half race, since his first stint was longer than those around him. Pace in the end of the first stint of mediums was good, so they could have definitely squeeze a couple of more laps on those tyres. Also, his 2nd stint on softs could have been a bit longer, it seems like they decided he’s a 3-stopper and just ignore the lap charts :-) The same thing applies to Ricciardo, seems like both teams adjusted their strategies because of the other driver, and in the end both got scrrewed up. Kudos for Verstappen holding the tyres, would like to know how much Kimi was actually faster.
Baron
17th May 2016, 11:47
My estimate 5-7 tenths. The rate at which he was catching Verstappen after his 2nd stop.
The Screaming Chief
19th May 2016, 23:24
Verstappen did not have to catch up. For tyremanagement it was better to let them come. You can only overtake at the end of the Start-finish straight. Verstappen new ( from video of the winning of Maldonado) you need to have a very good 3rd sector and manage the gap on start-finish on 6-7 tenth. If so, you can’t overtake at the end of the straight.
You can’t be too long close to the car in front of you or you will destroy your tyres ( he kept around 1,5-1,7 behind Ricciardo to avoid that).
If he had more time to get used to the car, his tyre management would have been even better.