Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap of the race as he tried to regain the place he lost to Lewis Hamilton.
The extent to which race winner Nico Rosberg was able to cruise home is shown by the fact his fastest race lap was almost a second off the race’s best.
Haas also enjoyed one of their most competitive weekends of the year, qualifying in the top ten and setting the eighth-fastest lap. However both cars finished out of the points. Romain Grosjean reckoned they definitely could have added to their tally.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been as frustrated as today at the end of a race,” he said. “I thought we deserved much more.”
“With the pace of the car, I was much faster than the Williams’. We just got the life on the hard tyres wrong. We could have pitted earlier for the last stint, but overall the pace was amazing. It shows a lot of promise for the future.”
2016 Japanese 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 Japanese Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’35.118 | 36 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’35.152 | 0.034 | 36 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’35.511 | 0.393 | 36 |
| 4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’35.990 | 0.872 | 33 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’36.049 | 0.931 | 31 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’36.386 | 1.268 | 43 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’36.756 | 1.638 | 31 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.020 | 1.902 | 32 |
| 9 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’37.177 | 2.059 | 39 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’37.351 | 2.233 | 39 |
| 11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’37.597 | 2.479 | 25 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’37.723 | 2.605 | 41 |
| 13 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.775 | 2.657 | 30 |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.785 | 2.667 | 35 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.844 | 2.726 | 33 |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’37.978 | 2.860 | 43 |
| 17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’38.000 | 2.882 | 39 |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’38.036 | 2.918 | 27 |
| 19 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’38.208 | 3.090 | 29 |
| 20 | Esteban Ocon | Manor-Mercedes | 1’38.380 | 3.262 | 33 |
| 21 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.496 | 3.378 | 28 |
| 22 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.544 | 3.426 | 28 |
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
9th October 2016, 13:42
Grosjean was very fast indeed, but I don’t see how an earlier final stop could have helped him. His pace was still very good at the end of the second stint and he was behind both Williams’ before their final stop, so probably the best thing to do was to stay out as long as possible to get a big enough tire advantage at the end of the race. Williams played the strategic game very well I think. Their pace wasn’t much better than that of the cars behind them and they were much slower than the guys that finished ahead.
Henrik
10th October 2016, 6:31
I love playing with these charts you provide Keith! :thumbup: There is so much information to be gleaned from them such as:
First, delete every driver except Nico R and Kimi R. It’s immediately apparent that there is no great difference in race pace but that where the Ferrari loses out is in traffic; The first stint and immediately after pit stops when back in traffic. Conclusions: Ferrari really do need to improve their qualifying pace to eliminate this difference and, if possible, plan their pit stops so that they come out in clean air.
Delete Nico and add Marcus Eriksson! Same engine, different chassis and it shows with the Sauber substantially slower. Isn’t it blatantly obvious why Sauber have chosen to stick with the 2016 spec Ferrari engine for 2017!
Now delete Kimi and add Felipe Massa who had an almost identical strategy to Eriksson! Oops!!! The Williams is only marginally quicker than the Sauber! The chassis of the Williams is to all intents and purposes just as poor (relatively speaking, of course!) as the Sauber!
There are of course loads of other interesting observations to make here. :-)