On a day when everything seemed to go right for Lewis Hamilton, even his pit stops were close to un-improvable.
Only once during the entire race did any of his rivals enjoy a pit stop which was quicker than one of the three Hamilton made.
Team mate Nico Rosberg, however, lost even more time than he should have when he had to serve a five-second penalty during his third pit stop. A problem with a stopwatch meant he lost around an extra four seconds on top of the penalty time.
Rosberg had gone to the super-soft tyres early in a bid to jump the Red Bulls but the penalty for his altercation with Max Verstappen put paid to that. Red Bull used three sets of super-soft tyres compared to Mercedes’ two, but concerns the rubber would drop off in the closing stages proved unfounded.
Three-stop strategies were the way to go for most teams. Valtteri Bottas attempted a two-stopper but his tyres had clearly gone off at the end.
Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed more luck with his two-stop strategy having been the only driver to start the race on the soft tyres, but once again he ended up one place short of a points finish.
2016 German Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (14) | Soft (20) | Super soft (13) | Soft (20) |
Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (12) | Soft (21) | Super soft (13) | Super soft (21) |
Max Verstappen | Super soft (11) | Super soft (17) | Soft (17) | Super soft (22) |
Nico Rosberg | Super soft (11) | Super soft (16) | Soft (17) | Soft (23) |
Sebastian Vettel | Super soft (13) | Soft (18) | Super soft (15) | Soft (21) |
Kimi Raikkonen | Super soft (14) | Soft (18) | Super soft (15) | Soft (20) |
Nico Hulkenberg | Super soft (12) | Soft (20) | Super soft (12) | Soft (23) |
Jenson Button | Super soft (13) | Soft (18) | Super soft (15) | Super soft (20) |
Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (12) | Soft (21) | Soft (33) | |
Sergio Perez | Super soft (8) | Soft (19) | Super soft (16) | Soft (23) |
Esteban Gutierrez | Soft (25) | Super soft (22) | Super soft (19) | |
Fernando Alonso | Super soft (14) | Soft (14) | Super soft (19) | Super soft (19) |
Romain Grosjean | Super soft (17) | Soft (26) | Super soft (23) | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | Super soft (9) | Super soft (20) | Soft (22) | Super soft (15) |
Daniil Kvyat | Super soft (7) | Soft (21) | Super soft (21) | Super soft (17) |
Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (11) | Super soft (21) | Soft (34) | |
Pascal Wehrlein | Super soft (12) | Super soft (14) | Soft (20) | Soft (19) |
Marcus Ericsson | Super soft (16) | Super soft (17) | Soft (32) | |
Jolyon Palmer | Super soft (2) | Soft (23) | Super soft (20) | Super soft (20) |
Rio Haryanto | Super soft (13) | Soft (19) | Super soft (17) | Super soft (16) |
Felipe Nasr | Super soft (7) | Super soft (12) | Soft (23) | Soft (15) |
Felipe Massa | Super soft (9) | Soft (17) | Soft (10) |
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2016 German Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 18.475 | 47 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 18.504 | 0.029 | 34 |
3 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 18.590 | 0.115 | 9 |
4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 18.650 | 0.175 | 14 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 18.738 | 0.263 | 33 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 18.796 | 0.321 | 12 |
7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 18.936 | 0.461 | 27 |
8 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 18.964 | 0.489 | 12 |
9 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 18.967 | 0.492 | 45 |
10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 18.979 | 0.504 | 46 |
11 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 19.000 | 0.525 | 46 |
12 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 19.017 | 0.542 | 11 |
13 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 19.034 | 0.559 | 11 |
14 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 19.124 | 0.649 | 31 |
15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 19.127 | 0.652 | 47 |
16 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 19.137 | 0.662 | 28 |
17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 19.142 | 0.667 | 32 |
18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 19.144 | 0.669 | 32 |
19 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 19.159 | 0.684 | 32 |
20 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 19.183 | 0.708 | 33 |
21 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 19.223 | 0.748 | 27 |
22 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 19.230 | 0.755 | 13 |
23 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 19.233 | 0.758 | 8 |
24 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 19.258 | 0.783 | 14 |
25 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 19.264 | 0.789 | 49 |
26 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 19.268 | 0.793 | 46 |
27 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 19.298 | 0.823 | 2 |
28 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 19.318 | 0.843 | 33 |
29 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 19.326 | 0.851 | 47 |
30 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 19.379 | 0.904 | 43 |
31 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 19.427 | 0.952 | 13 |
32 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 19.440 | 0.965 | 28 |
33 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 19.472 | 0.997 | 31 |
34 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 19.525 | 1.050 | 47 |
35 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 19.547 | 1.072 | 51 |
36 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 19.608 | 1.133 | 12 |
37 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 19.626 | 1.151 | 26 |
38 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 19.658 | 1.183 | 46 |
39 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 19.693 | 1.218 | 11 |
40 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 19.725 | 1.250 | 45 |
41 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 19.747 | 1.272 | 29 |
42 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 19.755 | 1.280 | 42 |
43 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 19.813 | 1.338 | 12 |
44 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 19.863 | 1.388 | 43 |
45 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 19.907 | 1.432 | 44 |
46 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 19.944 | 1.469 | 19 |
47 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 20.099 | 1.624 | 25 |
48 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 20.148 | 1.673 | 16 |
49 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 20.227 | 1.752 | 28 |
50 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 20.301 | 1.826 | 17 |
51 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 20.919 | 2.444 | 32 |
52 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 21.186 | 2.711 | 49 |
53 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.393 | 3.918 | 14 |
54 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 22.751 | 4.276 | 9 |
55 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 23.243 | 4.768 | 7 |
56 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 26.688 | 8.213 | 25 |
57 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 28.364 | 9.889 | 44 |
58 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 29.865 | 11.390 | 7 |
59 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | 31.317 | 12.842 | 13 |
60 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 36.395 | 17.920 | 26 |
2016 German Grand Prix
- Ricciardo grabs third Driver of the Weekend win of 2016
- F1 went into the summer break on a low
- 2016 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 German Grand Prix
- 2016 German Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
ColdFly F1 (@)
31st July 2016, 17:08
Rosberg lost 11sec vs Hamilton in the pit.
5 of those are his own fault; 6 of those cost him 6 WDC points!
Sonics (@sonicslv)
31st July 2016, 19:27
Not really sure about the 6 because he was nowhere in last stint while the bulls suddenly using their wings and even then Hamilton still toying with them.
Mikee
31st July 2016, 17:10
Why did Mercedes put Rosberg for his last stop so early? They could have extended the stint to put him on SS for the last stint to have a better chance of catching the RBRs!
Sonics (@sonicslv)
31st July 2016, 19:29
No more fresh SS left and probably trying to force undercut to minimize the penalty damage. The extra idle time is not in their plan though, and in hindsight Soft proved to be better than SS.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
31st July 2016, 19:06
Williams once again botched the strategy. Even if the two stop strategy would’ve worked, it was still an unnecessary risk. Bottas should’ve pitted for the third time when Hulkenberg did. Bottas would’ve kept the track position over Hulkenberg and thus it would’ve been a likely 7th position for Williams.
It often seems like Williams is focusing only on their own race when they should be watching their rivals also and reacting quickly when their closest rivals make a move.
Leo B
1st August 2016, 9:34
I think the vast majority of drivers started with a 2-stopper as “plan A”. When it became clear that several drivers were pushing hard, with little tyre conservation, everyone was forced towards a 3-stopper. Those who gambled on staying on a 2-stopper probably regretted it afterwards.
With regards to Williams, Hulkenberg had undercut Bottas at the second stop and was ahead anyway. Bottas wouldn’t have had track position had he taken a 3rd tyre change.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
31st July 2016, 19:33
I think Mercedes pit crew is actually their weakest link atm. The trend is when they in comfortable position with healthy gap to behind, they can service the cars consistently fast. However when they actually need to race with others, their service time dropped a lot. And this is the same for Hamilton and Rosberg time, Hamilton generally has slower average stop than Rosberg in early season where Rosberg in front and Hamilton racing with others.
Yusha (@freebird78)
31st July 2016, 20:09
+1
x303 (@x303)
31st July 2016, 21:38
Strange how Verstappen complained of both Soft and SS rubbers. They looked good on Ricciardo’s car.
JayR (@deidunxf1)
31st July 2016, 22:39
Is Lewis’ aggressive entry into the pits all weekend partly the reason he has almost all the top times in terms of pit stops?