Valtteri Bottas, Williams, Suzuka, 2016

2016 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Williams were the fastest team in the pits once again though driver Valtteri Bottas could hardly have been happy about it this time.

Start, Suzuka, 2016
2016 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures
His team mate Felipe Massa enjoyed the quickest complete pit stop of the race when he came in on lap 24. He spent two-tenths of a second less in the pit lane than any other driver on his only stop, and two-and-a-half seconds less than Bottas.

It wasn’t just the quicker stop which got Massa ahead of Bottas, however. He also enjoyed the benefit of the ‘undercut’ by pitting two laps earlier than his team mate. This was despite the fact Bottas was running ahead of him at the time.

“Being the lead car in the first stint I was hoping for the better strategy out of the two of us,” said Bottas after finishing tenth behind Massa.

However Williams’ single-stop strategy did allow them to move both cars into the top ten at the expense of the Haas drivers.

2016 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3
Nico Rosberg Soft (12) Hard (17) Hard (24)
Max Verstappen Soft (10) Hard (18) Hard (25)
Lewis Hamilton Soft (13) Hard (20) Hard (20)
Sebastian Vettel Soft (12) Hard (22) Soft (19)
Kimi Raikkonen Soft (12) Hard (14) Hard (27)
Daniel Ricciardo Soft (10) Hard (22) Hard (21)
Sergio Perez Soft (12) Hard (17) Medium (24)
Nico Hulkenberg Soft (11) Hard (17) Medium (25)
Felipe Massa Medium (24) Hard (29)
Valtteri Bottas Medium (26) Hard (27)
Romain Grosjean Soft (10) Hard (20) Hard (23)
Jolyon Palmer Medium (25) Hard (27)
Daniil Kvyat Soft (10) Soft (13) Hard (29)
Kevin Magnussen Hard (25) Medium (27)
Marcus Ericsson Medium (26) Hard (26)
Fernando Alonso Soft (9) Hard (18) Hard (25)
Carlos Sainz Jnr Soft (13) Hard (24) Soft (15)
Jenson Button Hard (19) Soft (17) Soft (16)
Felipe Nasr Hard (25) Medium (27)
Esteban Gutierrez Soft (11) Hard (17) Hard (24)
Esteban Ocon Soft (12) Hard (19) Hard (21)
Pascal Wehrlein Soft (13) Hard (19) Hard (20)

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2016 Japanese 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 22.463 24
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 22.673 0.210 12
3 Sergio Perez Force India 22.721 0.258 29
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.732 0.269 33
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 22.762 0.299 26
6 Fernando Alonso McLaren 22.786 0.323 9
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 22.788 0.325 28
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 22.832 0.369 11
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull 22.855 0.392 10
10 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 22.887 0.424 34
11 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso 22.938 0.475 37
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 22.943 0.480 23
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 22.952 0.489 28
14 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso 22.986 0.523 13
15 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.989 0.526 13
16 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 22.990 0.527 10
17 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 22.996 0.533 10
18 Fernando Alonso McLaren 23.032 0.569 27
19 Kevin Magnussen Renault 23.072 0.609 25
20 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 23.150 0.687 29
21 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 23.226 0.763 12
22 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 23.244 0.781 12
23 Jenson Button McLaren 23.342 0.879 36
24 Jolyon Palmer Renault 23.452 0.989 25
25 Sergio Perez Force India 23.605 1.142 12
26 Romain Grosjean Haas 23.741 1.278 10
27 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 23.792 1.329 28
28 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 24.011 1.548 26
29 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 24.110 1.647 11
30 Esteban Ocon Manor 24.256 1.793 31
31 Jenson Button McLaren 24.375 1.912 19
32 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 24.630 2.167 13
33 Esteban Ocon Manor 24.973 2.510 12
34 Valtteri Bottas Williams 25.007 2.544 26
35 Felipe Nasr Sauber 25.131 2.668 25
36 Romain Grosjean Haas 25.429 2.966 30
37 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 25.461 2.998 32
38 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 25.861 3.398 32

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “2016 Japanese Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. It seems the 1-stop strategy was the way to go in the midfield.

  2. The Ferrari strategie to put VET on soft was the mistake of the year. It cost them a podium and i can not see how this ever could have worked.

  3. If Vettel has prove himself to Ferrari, then I wonder what the pitwall has to do to finally draw the boss his wrath. Wasn’t track position key when fighting a Mercedes? And don’t get me started on the guys who make the gearboxes. There’s alot of things wrong at Ferrari. The drivers aren’t the problem.

    1. Yes, Vettel might have had a telling off after some of the first corners crashes that have taken points from both reds, but time after time, wrong tyre strategy has caused lost points and even possible wins.

      Surely if Marchionne wants better results he should seek better minds who can put two and two together. On Sunday, fans and commentators could see it was time to get Vettel in but he was left to be undercut, carbon copy of Rikkonen the previous race.

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