The Singapore Grand Prix was one of the more varied we’ve seen this year in terms of tyre strategies, even among the front-runners.
Nico Rosberg stuck to his two-stop strategy to take the win despite pressure from those behind him who converted to three stops, led by Daniel Ricciardo.
Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel took advantage of his unused sets of ultra-soft tyres as he worked his way up from last to fifth place.
And Sergio Perez effectively did a one-stop race, getting rid of his ultra-softs on the first lap behind the Safety Car and doing two stints on softs to get to the end.
2016 Singapore Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | Stint 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Rosberg | Ultra soft (16) | Soft (17) | Soft (28) | ||
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (15) | Super soft (17) | Soft (15) | Super soft (14) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Ultra soft (15) | Soft (19) | Soft (11) | Super soft (16) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ultra soft (17) | Super soft (16) | Soft (13) | Ultra soft (15) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (24) | Ultra soft (18) | Ultra soft (19) | ||
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (13) | Super soft (14) | Super soft (17) | Soft (17) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Ultra soft (14) | Super soft (20) | Soft (27) | ||
| Sergio Perez | Ultra soft (1) | Soft (24) | Soft (36) | ||
| Daniil Kvyat | Ultra soft (15) | Super soft (22) | Super soft (24) | ||
| Kevin Magnussen | Ultra soft (17) | Super soft (21) | Super soft (23) | ||
| Esteban Gutierrez | Ultra soft (18) | Ultra soft (18) | Soft (24) | ||
| Felipe Massa | Ultra soft (16) | Super soft (12) | Ultra soft (15) | Ultra soft (17) | |
| Felipe Nasr | Super soft (17) | Super soft (18) | Soft (25) | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ultra soft (7) | Super soft (20) | Soft (21) | Ultra soft (12) | |
| Jolyon Palmer | Super soft (11) | Super soft (23) | Soft (26) | ||
| Pascal Wehrlein | Ultra soft (18) | Super soft (18) | Ultra soft (24) | ||
| Marcus Ericsson | Ultra soft (8) | Super soft (17) | Ultra soft (11) | Soft (24) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Ultra soft (19) | Ultra soft (15) | Super soft (11) | Super soft (14) | |
| Jenson Button | Ultra soft (1) | Super soft (14) | Ultra soft (12) | Soft (16) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Ultra soft (1) | Soft (14) | Super soft (15) | Ultra soft (2) | Ultra soft (3) |
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2016 Singapore 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 | 28.315 | 45 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 28.421 | 0.106 | 34 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 28.545 | 0.230 | 30 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 28.662 | 0.347 | 47 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 28.682 | 0.367 | 16 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 28.742 | 0.427 | 25 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 28.759 | 0.444 | 17 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 28.780 | 0.465 | 15 |
| 9 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 28.804 | 0.489 | 34 |
| 10 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 28.815 | 0.500 | 13 |
| 11 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 28.847 | 0.532 | 11 |
| 12 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 28.854 | 0.539 | 44 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 28.890 | 0.575 | 15 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 28.921 | 0.606 | 32 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 28.924 | 0.609 | 24 |
| 16 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 28.948 | 0.633 | 27 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 28.954 | 0.639 | 46 |
| 18 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 28.970 | 0.655 | 33 |
| 19 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 28.998 | 0.683 | 15 |
| 20 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 29.025 | 0.710 | 27 |
| 21 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 29.041 | 0.726 | 17 |
| 22 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 29.135 | 0.820 | 33 |
| 23 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 29.150 | 0.835 | 15 |
| 24 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 29.205 | 0.890 | 37 |
| 25 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 29.320 | 1.005 | 27 |
| 26 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 29.377 | 1.062 | 48 |
| 27 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 29.391 | 1.076 | 42 |
| 28 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 29.401 | 1.086 | 14 |
| 29 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 29.468 | 1.153 | 25 |
| 30 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 29.537 | 1.222 | 35 |
| 31 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 29.578 | 1.263 | 28 |
| 32 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 29.680 | 1.365 | 36 |
| 33 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 29.706 | 1.391 | 8 |
| 34 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 29.754 | 1.439 | 38 |
| 35 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 29.846 | 1.531 | 7 |
| 36 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 29.903 | 1.588 | 43 |
| 37 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 30.160 | 1.845 | 36 |
| 38 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 30.297 | 1.982 | 17 |
| 39 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 30.301 | 1.986 | 15 |
| 40 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 30.307 | 1.992 | 18 |
| 41 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 30.381 | 2.066 | 34 |
| 42 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 30.471 | 2.156 | 36 |
| 43 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 30.532 | 2.217 | 18 |
| 44 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 30.546 | 2.231 | 16 |
| 45 | Esteban Ocon | Manor | 30.614 | 2.299 | 34 |
| 46 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 32.709 | 4.394 | 1 |
| 47 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 32.821 | 4.506 | 1 |
| 48 | Esteban Ocon | Manor | 42.368 | 14.053 | 45 |
| 49 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 42.815 | 14.500 | 1 |
| 50 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 63.680 | 35.365 | 32 |
| 51 | Esteban Ocon | Manor | 104.383 | 76.068 | 19 |
2016 Singapore Grand Prix
- Narrow Singapore Driver of the Weekend win for Rosberg
- Singapore Grand Prix gets second-highest rating
- 2016 Singapore Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- 2016 Singapore Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix
Kribana (@krichelle)
18th September 2016, 18:42
I was just wondering… could Mercedes have double stacked their cars? No right? Because if they would… Ric would have had it easy? But given… nico’s pace… he would have caught Ric in the end had he been in the same position as Ric? I was also thinking this…. because i would assume nico would have been put on supersofts and he had a better setup… though this would be a lot risky right?
grapmg (@)
19th September 2016, 9:09
I don’t understand why Red Bull did not use the Ultra Soft tyres in the race. The strategic choice for SS on the start clearly did not pay off because they did not pit later than the other teams with Ultra Softs. Why not switch to ultra soft earlier or at least the last stint of the race? All the other teams used them and vettel even managed a two stop strategy on Ultra Softs and jumped from last to 5th.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
19th September 2016, 10:42
I have to say that the new tyre rules have been successful in creating variety. Why not allow all five compounds? Might be even better.
There were 15 different strategies, and not a single one was used by more than two drivers. Only Rosberg/Perez (US/S/S), Palmer/Nasr (SS/SS/S), Raikkonen/Sainz (US/SS/S/US), Kvyat/Magnussen (US/SS/SS) and Button/Ericsson (US/SS/US/S) used the same strategies.
Akshat
20th September 2016, 16:32
+1
I too like these new tyre rules.
Jezzard
20th September 2016, 3:01
The race was/ became interesting due to the time. It allowed more differentiation in strategies. Is there a case for more 2 hour races of greater distance. Maybe one 2.5/ 3 hour race per season?!