2017 Malaysian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix

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The Malaysian Grand Prix was another straightforward one-stopper for almost every driver in the field.

2017 Malaysian GP in pictures
So much so that Esteban Ocon did almost the entire race on a single set of soft tyres. He had to pit at the end of lap two after picking up a puncture, and did 53 laps on the same set of tyres from then on. He began to experience some degradation on them after his 32nd lap on them, but nothing like enough for it to be worth a visit to the pits.

By avoiding the temptation to make a second stop Ocon was able to pick up the final point for tenth. Nico Hulkenberg, who also pitted early, was warned by his team that two-stopping was not a good strategy. Nonetheless he did make a second stop with five laps to go. Romain Grosjean was another driver who made two visits to the pits, and it didn’t work out for him either.

There was some concern over the possibility of rain around the middle of the race which may explain why some teams were reluctant to pit earlier than they did. Once Lewis Hamilton became the first of the front runners to pit and his lap times dropped by well over two seconds, the rest of the front runners soon followed.

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1Stint 2Stint 3
Max VerstappenSuper soft (27)Soft (29)
Lewis HamiltonSuper soft (26)Soft (30)
Daniel RicciardoSuper soft (29)Soft (27)
Sebastian VettelSoft (27)Super soft (29)
Valtteri BottasSuper soft (28)Soft (28)
Sergio PerezSuper soft (30)Soft (26)
Stoffel VandoorneSuper soft (13)Soft (42)
Lance StrollSuper soft (12)Soft (43)
Felipe MassaSuper soft (11)Soft (44)
Esteban OconSuper soft (2)Soft (53)
Fernando AlonsoSuper soft (26)Soft (29)
Kevin MagnussenSuper soft (10)Soft (45)
Romain GrosjeanSuper soft (11)Soft (22)Super soft (22)
Pierre GaslySuper soft (12)Soft (43)
Jolyon PalmerSuper soft (13)Soft (42)
Nico HulkenbergSuper soft (9)Soft (41)Super soft (5)
Pascal WehrleinSoft (37)Super soft (18)
Marcus EricssonSoft (38)Super soft (16)
Carlos Sainz JnrSuper soft (29)

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2017 Malaysian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

DriverTeamPit stop timeGapOn lap
1Lewis HamiltonMercedes23.48926
2Max VerstappenRed Bull23.6520.16327
3Valtteri BottasMercedes23.6760.18728
4Sebastian VettelFerrari23.6950.20627
5Kevin MagnussenHaas23.7660.27710
6Felipe MassaWilliams23.7910.30211
7Lance StrollWilliams24.1090.62012
8Daniel RicciardoRed Bull24.1990.71029
9Sergio PerezForce India24.3140.82530
10Romain GrosjeanHaas24.4190.93033
11Esteban OconForce India24.4560.9672
12Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren24.5801.09113
13Marcus EricssonSauber24.7191.23038
14Nico HulkenbergRenault24.8721.3839
15Romain GrosjeanHaas24.9121.42311
16Pierre GaslyToro Rosso25.0441.55512
17Pascal WehrleinSauber25.0601.57137
18Jolyon PalmerRenault25.5582.06913
19Nico HulkenbergRenault25.7142.22550
20Fernando AlonsoMcLaren25.7982.30926

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Author information

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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2 comments on “2017 Malaysian Grand Prix tyre strategies and pit stops”

  1. Maybe Seb was asking too much of his supersofts, after being the fastest his last eight laps or so were painful.

  2. I thought the track surface was quite abrasive, but apparently these tires are so hard that degradation is still quite low. The main reason why the front-runners were pitting late was that they were waiting for each other to pit first. Due to the low tire wear the timing of the pitstop didn’t matter much. The only objective was to stay out of traffic.
    By the way, Grosjean had nothing to lose when he made his second stop, so his strategy was understandable. Hülkenberg’s strategy didn’t make sense at all. Either he took fresh tires because he had a slow puncture, or his objective was to set the fastest lap of the race.

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