There was little variation in strategy between the front runners at the Hungaroring. One stint on super-soft tyres followed by two on softs was the preferred route to the end of the race for all the points-scorers, with a single exception.
That was Kimi Raikkonen, who had a strong incentive to explore an alternative strategy having qualified only 14th. His early ejection from the rain-hit qualifying session gave him the benefit of more sets of fresh super-soft tyres compared to the other front-runners.
Raikkonen therefore started on the soft tyres, made his first pit stop much later than the others, and went to the end with two stints on the super-softs. However it wasn’t enough to help him overtake Max Verstappen,despite the Red Bull driver having a 12-lap-older set of the harder soft compound tyres.
Mercedes performed the fastest complete pit stop of the race for Nico Rosberg when he pitted for the first time.
2016 Hungarian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (16) | Soft (25) | Soft (29) | |
| Nico Rosberg | Super soft (17) | Soft (25) | Soft (28) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (15) | Soft (18) | Soft (37) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (14) | Soft (27) | Soft (29) | |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (16) | Soft (22) | Soft (32) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (29) | Super soft (21) | Super soft (20) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Super soft (15) | Soft (29) | Soft (25) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Super soft (16) | Soft (26) | Soft (27) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (16) | Soft (27) | Soft (26) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (14) | Soft (25) | Soft (30) | |
| Sergio Perez | Soft (27) | Medium (13) | Soft (29) | |
| Esteban Gutierrez | Super soft (15) | Soft (22) | Soft (32) | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Soft (26) | Super soft (13) | Soft (30) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (14) | Soft (22) | Soft (33) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (24) | Super soft (12) | Soft (33) | |
| Daniil Kvyat | Soft (24) | Super soft (22) | Super soft (23) | |
| Felipe Nasr | Super soft (11) | Soft (28) | Soft (30) | |
| Felipe Massa | Soft (25) | Medium (40) | Super soft (3) | |
| Pascal Wehrlein | Super soft (9) | Soft (26) | Soft (33) | |
| Marcus Ericsson | Soft (17) | Soft (28) | Super soft (17) | Super soft (6) |
| Rio Haryanto | Soft (29) | Medium (39) | ||
| Jenson Button | Super soft (7) | Soft (21) | Medium (32) |
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2016 Hungarian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.233 | 17 | |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 21.405 | 0.172 | 43 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.441 | 0.208 | 16 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.535 | 0.302 | 41 |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.640 | 0.407 | 14 |
| 6 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 21.665 | 0.432 | 39 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 21.687 | 0.454 | 38 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 21.704 | 0.471 | 16 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.773 | 0.540 | 41 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 21.793 | 0.560 | 25 |
| 11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 21.857 | 0.624 | 50 |
| 12 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 21.892 | 0.659 | 26 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 21.897 | 0.664 | 44 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 21.951 | 0.718 | 29 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 21.990 | 0.757 | 24 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.006 | 0.773 | 33 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 22.014 | 0.781 | 14 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 22.051 | 0.818 | 36 |
| 19 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 22.099 | 0.866 | 15 |
| 20 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.105 | 0.872 | 24 |
| 21 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.229 | 0.996 | 7 |
| 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.241 | 1.008 | 15 |
| 23 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.303 | 1.070 | 36 |
| 24 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 22.351 | 1.118 | 42 |
| 25 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 22.366 | 1.133 | 65 |
| 26 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.389 | 1.156 | 16 |
| 27 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.417 | 1.184 | 42 |
| 28 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.427 | 1.194 | 14 |
| 29 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 22.520 | 1.287 | 37 |
| 30 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 22.689 | 1.456 | 27 |
| 31 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 22.718 | 1.485 | 28 |
| 32 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 22.765 | 1.532 | 35 |
| 33 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 22.778 | 1.545 | 11 |
| 34 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 22.828 | 1.595 | 15 |
| 35 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.960 | 1.727 | 16 |
| 36 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 22.965 | 1.732 | 39 |
| 37 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.198 | 1.965 | 45 |
| 38 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.308 | 2.075 | 62 |
| 39 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 23.350 | 2.117 | 39 |
| 40 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 23.486 | 2.253 | 9 |
| 41 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.873 | 2.640 | 17 |
| 42 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 24.254 | 3.021 | 29 |
| 43 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 27.951 | 6.718 | 46 |
| 44 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 29.941 | 8.708 | 40 |
2016 Hungarian Grand Prix
- 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Raikkonen’s rise to sixth earns Driver of the Weekend win
- Rosberg ‘surprised Hamilton is suddenly a fan of safety’
- Drivers to demand yellow flag clarification
- Few excited by Hungarian GP “chess match”
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
24th July 2016, 21:17
It was a bit of a weird race. Drivers were saving their tires until the pitstops. For example, Räikkönen was even faster on worn tires than Vettel and Ricciardo on fresh tires and Ricciardo’s Mercedes undercut failed completely. So in the end the usual tire chaos just wasn’t there. Perhaps Pirelli was right to bring the soft and medium tires up until this year, as these softer tires only led to tire saving.
Eddie
26th July 2016, 18:49
Was it just me, or maybe a rule I’m unfamiliar with, or did it occur to anyone else that Kimi could have conceivably put on medium tires at his pit stop on lap 29 and made it to the end of the race with a one stop strategy? Maybe they didn’t think the gamble was worth it.
WheelToWheel (@lolzerbob)
27th July 2016, 9:16
Massa and Perez tried it and the car was sliding everywhere and the pace was bad and they had to abort it