Williams produced the fastest pit stops again but they weren’t quick enough to make Felipe Massa’s two-stop strategy work.
He slipped from fifth on the grid to tenth at the chequered flag after an early visit to the pits followed by a return for a second set of soft tyres.
A one-stop strategy was overwhelmingly the preferred choice of the front-runners but not everyone was able to get the performance necessary to make it work. Surprisingly that included the Red Bulls, who finished in the lower reaches of the top ten.
2016 European Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Super soft (21) | Soft (30) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (20) | Soft (31) | |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (16) | Soft (35) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (8) | Soft (43) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (15) | Soft (36) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (19) | Soft (32) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (6) | Soft (16) | Medium (29) |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (5) | Soft (15) | Medium (31) |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (20) | Super soft (31) | |
| Felipe Massa | Super soft (7) | Soft (21) | Soft (23) |
| Jenson Button | Super soft (6) | Soft (19) | Soft (26) |
| Felipe Nasr | Super soft (7) | Soft (17) | Soft (26) |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (10) | Soft (16) | Medium (24) |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (6) | Soft (44) | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Super soft (11) | Soft (20) | Super soft (19) |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Super soft (8) | Soft (21) | Super soft (21) |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (16) | Super soft (9) | Soft (25) |
| Rio Haryanto | Super soft (1) | Soft (48) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (5) | Soft (19) | Soft (18) |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Soft (29) | Medium (10) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Super soft (4) | Soft (23) | Super soft (4) |
| Daniil Kvyat | Super soft (5) | Soft (1) |
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2016 European 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 | 19.445 | 7 | |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 19.732 | 0.287 | 19 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 19.840 | 0.395 | 6 |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 19.858 | 0.413 | 28 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 20.058 | 0.613 | 21 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 20.069 | 0.624 | 5 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 20.108 | 0.663 | 15 |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 20.155 | 0.710 | 22 |
| 9 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 20.185 | 0.740 | 6 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 20.282 | 0.837 | 5 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 20.347 | 0.902 | 20 |
| 12 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 20.422 | 0.977 | 20 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 20.559 | 1.114 | 25 |
| 14 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 20.561 | 1.116 | 31 |
| 15 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 20.593 | 1.148 | 8 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 20.614 | 1.169 | 16 |
| 17 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 20.640 | 1.195 | 25 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 20.654 | 1.209 | 24 |
| 19 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 20.670 | 1.225 | 7 |
| 20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 20.713 | 1.268 | 24 |
| 21 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 20.772 | 1.327 | 6 |
| 22 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 20.965 | 1.520 | 11 |
| 23 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 21.030 | 1.585 | 27 |
| 24 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 21.083 | 1.638 | 16 |
| 25 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 21.132 | 1.687 | 10 |
| 26 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 21.533 | 2.088 | 29 |
| 27 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.028 | 2.583 | 4 |
| 28 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.497 | 3.052 | 20 |
| 29 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.588 | 4.143 | 26 |
| 30 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 24.802 | 5.357 | 5 |
| 31 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 26.187 | 6.742 | 29 |
| 32 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 29.227 | 9.782 | 8 |
| 33 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 33.405 | 13.960 | 1 |
2016 European Grand Prix
- Podium earns Perez Driver of the Weekend win
- Baku’s first race ranked among the worst since 2008
- 2016 European Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 European Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 European Grand Prix
Daniel Chico (@daniel-chico)
19th June 2016, 18:17
Can someone explain why the difference in performance for RBR? Hopefully Horner or the pilots will be interviewed and asked to elucidate this question. I’m really liking the three compounds rule. Wasn’t for that, they would be stuck with the softs.
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
20th June 2016, 15:26
Slow inlap and exit for Verstappen. Remember that the times are for the full pit stop including coming in and going out. I can’t remember the exact stationary pitstop time for Verstappen on that stop, but I think it was 2.8 seconds. At most he lost 1 second while stationary. He lost the other 2 seconds on his entry lap and exit.
kanan
19th June 2016, 20:46
Ferrari should start paying Vettel for his strategic choices as well.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
20th June 2016, 22:09
Wow, Haryanto 48 laps on Softs! Red Bull should ask him how he does it :)